Curiosity killed the Pup
by xstaytruex
Summary: A lot of stuff can happen in a month. A lot of painful, amazing, confusing stuff. But did Joey and Kaiba ever think they'd fall in love and become a couple? Probably not. Not in a month. (Roleplay turned Fan Fic! Regularly updated.)
1. What's wrong with Joey Wheeler?

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 **THIS IS A ROLEPLAY EDITED INTO FAN FIC FORMAT!**

 **Ashley** is writing as **Joey Wheeler** and **Margaret** is writing as **Seto Kaiba**.  
Each reply has been marked with either ' **J** ' for Joey (Ashley) and ' **S** ' for Seto (Margaret).  
 **PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REVIEW/FOLLOW/FAVOURITE THIS STORY AS WE WILL BE REGULARLY UPDATING!  
** Have a plot suggestion? Let us know! :D

 **Find Ash on Instagram:** thatroleplaynerd - for some reason, it wont let me put the full stops in! between each word there is a dot like this: .  
 **Find Margaret on Instagram:** setoxjou (puppyshipping page) or margaretnewlands (personal)

 **Margaret:** Hey guys! Thank you so much for checking out mine and Ash's roleplay/fic 'Curiosity killed the Pup'. This was originally a Puppyshipping Roleplay that we started together and as it progressed, we really liked the idea of putting it all together in form of a Fan Fic for everyone to enjoy. :D We've had such a great time roleplaying, creating plots, enjoying each other's writing so we hope you enjoy it, too! **THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. ** I can't stress that enough! Because of the context of this RP/Fic, it is very lengthy. So far, we have 33 chapters (90k+ words) in total and that's not even all of it! So please understand that as we progress, so will the Fic. **Please feel free to leave your reviews/feedback/plot suggestions to us!** We're both really proud and excited to be uploading this, so here's hoping you guys are, too!

 **Ashley:** Hey everyone! Welcome to this RP/Fic mash up that one 20 and one 21 year old have been spending 95% of their time working on! ;) I hope you like our little twists and turns and appreciate our 'humanizing' of Seto and Joey. It's a a little lengthy but its good and don't worry **THERE IS SMUT**. You just have to wait a little for it to arrive! Would love to hear any feedback from ya'll. Enjoy!

* * *

 **J:** Joey pouted as Yugi shook his head and pulled away a magic card from his line up and pointed out yet another flaw in is strategy and deck. The blonde leant back in his chair, running his hands through his hair in exasperation. "I'm never gonna get it, Yug. I'll never be as good as you."  
The violet eyed boy smiled and nodded.  
"Sure you will Joey. You just need lots of prac-" The school bell rung, chiming loudly throughout all the classes. It was time to go home. Collecting their belongings, Yugi and Joey walked home together, discussing duel monster cards and strategies and types until they turned and went their separate ways down the streets of Domino City.

* * *

As Joey walked home, the sun had set and an eerie silence had fallen over his neighbourhood. Granted it wasn't a very safe or good neighbourhood but it had never felt like this. The air felt thick and stifling and the buildings seemed to blur into darkness. He felt like he was being watched... shadowed, like someone was very close to him that he could sense the presence just behind... The blonde span in place, heart pounding in his chest, fists risen in defence.  
"Come out, whoever you are. C'mon, fight like a man!"

 **K:** Another day, another meeting. This was just normal routine for Seto now. Late nights and early mornings seemed to dominate his life but, somehow, he was at peace with it. 'As long as it keeps Mokuba happy' was what he always reminded himself.

He sighed, bringing his hand to his temple as he came into the 3rd hour of his journey. It wasn't that he was un-accustomed to the driving but that didn't mean that he enjoyed it. Cerulean eyes met darkness as he started out of the window, objects passing in blurs.  
"How long now?" he questioned out loud to his driver from the back of his sleek limousine.  
"Not long now, Mr. Kaiba. Bored are we?"  
"Heh." The CEO scoffed, eyes once again focusing outside again. It had been hours since he had last seen anyone on the streets as he doubted that was going to change as they came into Domino City.

Finally, they pulled into the border of Seto's hometown. With a sigh of relief he slumped back into the leather seats, head tipping backwards, his brunette locks falling over his tired eyes. They pulled a corner, the car slowing down slightly.  
"What's that punk doing out at this time?" The driver murmured to himself, changing the limo into a lower gear.  
'... Wheeler? What's he doing out at this time without his gang of losers?' Seto thought, sitting back up in his seat and glancing out into the distance, eyes catching the sight of very familiar golden hair.

 **J:** Joey gritted his teeth, trying desperately to call on his tough guy facade that he so often relied on. His friends knew it wasn't real, particularly Yugi, everyone got scared now and then- but what the entire gang knew was how much courage Joey really had, particularly in the face of danger around his friends. But here he was, alone, the darkness around him seeming to cloud his thoughts and senses, suffocating him like a pillow to the face. Out of this darkness, a figure emerged.  
"Bakura..?"  
The white-haired male chuckled eerily, his voice reverberating off the thick clouds around them as he took a step further towards the blonde.  
"Yes... Hello, Joey. How unfortunate seeing you here."  
The blonde frowned and took a step back. This wasn't the real Bakura. Something was wrong.

The spirit smirked, showing his jagged teeth and let out a hearty laugh. "What's wrong, Wheeler? Scared of the dark?"  
"Wha-no, wait... stop... Noooo!"

Joey woke up in the darkness. He sat up and waved his hand in front of his face. Nothing. He checked that his eyes were truly open and they were. He looked around, seeing nothing but black and sighed, letting his body fall back down flat.

 _'Great, stuck in the Shadow Realm... .'_

Yami Bakura on the other hand flexed his fingers in his new body before peering over at the small, white-haired male now crumpled up and slumped against the brick wall to his left.  
"Pathetic," The spirit growled, taking out Joey's deck from his back pocket and glancing at the cards, "Hmm... yes, much stronger. More potential." Bakura grinned, tucking the Millennium Ring into his shirt so it hung close to his chest before he started off into the darkness in search of duellists he could destroy.

 **K:** "Do you know this punk?"

"Uh..." Seto wanted to say no, he really did. But unfortunately, curiosity always did kill the cat. "No- well, yeah. He's some half-brained idiot who goes to my school." he said through a sigh, eyes still locked on the blonde boy in the distance. It seemed to be darker now - it only seemed a few minutes ago that it was clear skies and yet now it seemed dull and foggy, moonlight bouncing off the CEO's cerulean eyes and landing right back onto Joey.

The limo had slowed down considerably. The darkness was really starting to take its toll. 'Hah, mutt's talking to himself now.' Seto thought with a smirk, gaze never leaving the other boy. But something seemed strange. Why was he out by himself? What was he doing talking to himself? His deck was in his hands - was he planning on trying to find someone to duel?  
"Follow him." the brunette said sharply, eyes flicking to the rear mirror to meet his driver's wide eyes.  
"But Sir-" he started, a slight whinge to his voice. Seto was easy to forget that it wasn't just HIM going on business ventures, it was also his drivers who had to stay up long hours.  
"Follow." Seto interrupted, raising a hand as if to silence his driver and end the discussion. "Make sure to be sneaky about it."  
"... In a limo...?"  
"NOW!"

 **J:** Bakura fell into the shadows of the darkened neighbourhood, knowing exactly where to go to find some punk duellists with a chip on their shoulder. He turned down a street and crossed a road before entering a skate park, the metal gate screeching across the floor as he entered. Immediately the spirit could sense the souls of a gang ahead of him. He smirked and walked confidently towards them, one hand pushed in his jeans pocket, the other holding his deck.  
"Good evening, gentlemen," Bakura said slowly, the words sounding strange coming from Joey's Brooklyn accent. The gang paused what they were doing and turned towards the blonde, angry and evil glints in their eyes.  
"Who the hell are you?"  
Bakura chuckled and raised one hand in defence to show he meant no harm.  
"No one, no one... Just a boy roaming the streets, looking for someone to duel. Anyone interested?"

A large, muscled man who had been sitting quietly at the back suddenly rose, standing at least 6'4".  
"Punks like you have no business being in our turf. We should teach you a lesson..." He murmured with a grin as the other gang members smiled and nodded at each other.  
"Ah, ah, ah!" Bakura said, wagging his finger, as suddenly dark clouds began to surround him and the larger man. "How about this... you duel me. If I lose, you can beat my weak, little body into a pulp as an example to all your 'cronies' how tough you are." The blonde said with a nod, taking out his duel disk and inserting his deck into the slot, "But... if I win, I get to take your soul."

It didn't take long for Bakura to win. The large man's eyes rolled back in his head and as the clouds of the Shadow Realm parted and the sky cleared, his group of followers saw only their leader falling forward sharply onto the concrete floor on his stomach, unconscious with no sign of the blonde haired male at all.

Bakura disappeared into the shadows and down an alleyway, chuckling to himself at how easy that defeat had been. He wanted more, that wasn't enough. He wanted a challenge, someone who would really test his skills...

 **K:** So they did just that. They followed the blonde boy who was apparently acting out of sorts. In all honesty it was none of Seto Kaiba's business but the whole curiosity saying comes back into play. It was just so unusual. Joey and his friends were never apart. If he wasn't with all of them, he was with Yugi. If he wasn't with Yugi, he was with Tristan. So why was he alone? Surely he had better things to be doing? And duelling? It was common knowledge that the Wheeler boy definitely had a long way to come, so practicing was understandable... just not at this time of night. Alone.

They pulled up around the other side of the skate park, shrouded by trees and metal work, a strange conglomeration of nature and man. Both Seto and his driver watched in silence and the blonde boy challenged a much larger man to a duel.  
"He's going to get his ass kicked." Seto scoffed.  
"Yep." His driver duly agreed. It was like watching some sort of bizarre reality TV show, the only thing they were missing was popcorn.

But yet the ass-kicking never commenced. In fact, Joey won by a long shot. Cerulean eyes widened as the scene played out in front of them. He'd never seen Joey like this. Memories came flooding back of the first time he and the blonde boy first duelled, back when Seto was still developing his first holographic duelling experience. He flattened the boy in less than 10 minutes. It almost made him angry - he felt his fists tensing, his top lip twitching.  
"Chase him and stop him." the CEO said calmly, slicking a slender hang through his thick, brunette hair. There was silence. "Now." He meant business. He was going to show Joey Wheeler that he couldn't just go around acting like the big dog. He was just a small puppy and Seto was his master.

The limo kick started loudly, going from first gear to second, third and straight into sixth. They sped around the corner, aiming for the street that they had just seen Joey going down. Another corner. They veered, the length of the limo struggling with the speed. And there he was, Joey Wheeler.  
"Get in front of him." Seto commanded, pulling his blue trench coat that was on the seat back over his black turtleneck. In seconds, they limo had blocked off the entrance to the alley, Seto's door facing Joey directly.

"Joey Wheeler," he hissed, stepping straight out into the alley, the cold air hitting his face, causing his cheeks to flush slightly. "Did puppy get lost alone at night?"

 **J:** Joey sat in the darkness, his deck laid out in front of him, his own source of comfort in the emptiness of the Shadow Realm. He knew that Bakura had done this to him, he didn't know why or how but he knew it was him. He'd been here before and he knew how it worked. He'd wake up, somewhere, not remembering a thing that had happened. Picking up his Red Eyes, the blonde stared into the dragon's eyes before bringing it to his forehead, clutching at it with all his strength.

 _'Please... someone? Anyone?'_

Bakura had peered into the darkness, seeing Joey deject and hopeless which made him all the happier. He assumed consciousness and smiled, pulling the collar of his jacket up around his neck to shield himself from the biting wind that had just ensued.  
"Right, onto the next-" The screeching sound of tires against tarmac invaded the boy's ears, his eyebrows rising in curiosity at this new development.  
"Company?" He said with a smirk as a black limo pulled across the alleyway, blocking his entrance. Out stepped a tall, brunette with a fire in his eyes that read he was severely pissed off.  
"Seto Kaiba, how lovely to see you. It's been a while, hm?" The spirit said sweetly, his words laced with venom, "What a coincidence. Indulging in a little midnight stalking, were we?" The blonde chuckled, immediately taking out his duel disk and inserting his deck.

"Well? What are you waiting for? We don't have all night." He said nonchalantly, his excitement growing at the prospect of having a real fight on his hands.

 **K:** Different. Joey was different. Since when did he speak with finesse and elegance? Never. Seto was immediately thrown off, mouth slightly open as the blonde spoke. Stalking? Well... technically...

"Don't flatter yourself, mutt." The brunette sneered, also equipping his duel disk and flipping it open, inserting his deck into the slot. "I smelt you from blocks away. Easy prey. What's an amateur like you even doing out here challenging men half their size to duels? Are you even dumber than you look?" Seto knew something was wrong - everything about Joey was different. But his pride got in the way of that. The only thing that the CEO was interested in was teaching his dog a lesson for acting up.

"And learnt some new vocabulary there, hm?" he continued to taunt as their life points flashed over their disks. "Other than the usual babbling and barking." He pulled a card from the top of his deck, not even waiting for Joey to respond or even have any input as to how the duel was going to go. Seto knew one thing: he was going to win and it was going to be good. But he couldn't help but wonder... what on earth was wrong with Joey Wheeler?


	2. Red Eyes to the Rescue

**J:** Bakura smirked at the insults, letting them wash over him before drawing five cards from his deck and peering at them through his dark eyelashes. A pretty good start. It'd be a tough duel, but he could win. He'd pummel Kaiba into the ground and take his soul off to the Shadow Realm! The life points on his duel disk flashed 4000 and the duel began. "Let's duel!"

The duel had not gone as expected. The spirit had underestimated Kaiba's strength and cunning and hadn't realised Joey's deck in comparison, was hardly up to scratch. He was angry at the young blonde, blaming him for the loss of the duel.

"I'll place one card face down and end my turn," Bakura growled under his breath, a menial 650 life points left to his name and only one face down card on the field. It wasn't going to be enough. He had run out of strategies, out of options and out of cards. The spirit began to laugh maniacally, echoing throughout the alley as veins popped out from his forehead. "Kaaaibaaa..." Bakura hissed in his own voice, not Joey's, "You really think you can win this..? You think you can save this wretched dog from the Shadow Realm? Hahaha, no... He'll be stuck there forever and you'll soon be joining him!"

Joey had sensed Kaiba immediately. He had really been hoping for Yugi, knowing his best friend would be able to get him out of this scrape, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Somehow the Shadow Realm had gotten darker the further on the duel went and the more Bakura seemed to get angrier. He could feel the electricity in the air and wondered, even if Kaiba won, if he would be stuck there for eternity. He suddenly heard Bakura's voice in the background and shuddered, a panic coursing through his veins. Standing up, Joey began to run. There were no paths to take, no signs to follow, he just kept running as fast as he legs could carry him.

'Kaiba, please, help me! Kaiba, you gotta win. Please!?'

The blonde paused, feeling a strange warmth coming from his back pocket. He pulled out his deck and ran through the cards before he got to the one emanating the heat. It was shining a bright white. It was his Red Eyes Black Dragon. Joey looked down at the card and shut his eyes, taking in a deep breath.

'You can do this,' He whispered as the card disintegrated in his hands.

 **K:** The duel was indeed going exactly as expected - at least from Seto's end. Monster after monster, Joey kept churning them out and Seto kept destroying them effortlessly. He hadn't even pulled the big guns out yet, he was saving his Blue Eyes for the finale, having the card hidden in his hand for the past couple of turns. He planned on humiliating the blonde as much as he could, not as if it wasn't working already.

Cerulean eyes flicked up to meet those of amber... but they didn't look like Joey's. Joey's were soft, full of humour and pride. But these? These were dark, almost transparent and dull. They held nothing but evil in them and Seto sensed that from the moment he saw him. Joey's laughter shocked Seto, causing him to jolt backwards, eyes forming into slits. 'The Shadow Realm...?' he repeated in his own mind, eyes scanning up and down the now maniacal blonde. The Shadow Realm! That explained it. This was not Joey Wheeler, how could Seto have not realised that at the start? This was someone else... this was someone evil, with bad intentions. This was...

"Bakura!" Seto choked, taking a step forward to the smaller boy. It was like his illusion had been shattered, the blonde boy was gone in Seto's eyes, the ancient Spirit stood there now clear as day. He understood now.

He paused, composing himself, one slender hand once more running through his hair.

"You'd be hard pushed to think I care about that mutt, Bakura." He smirked. Lying was just a trait he had inherited through years of business. "As for me? Shadow Realm?" he flicked his hand of cards back to his face, ready to pick the Blue Eyes and put it into play. "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt." He grasped the card, ready to place it face up and suddenly, the CEO stopped right in his path. Wide eyed he stared right at the Red Eyes Black Dragon - Joey's trademark card. "How...?" he muttered, quickly glancing up to Bakura and then straight back down again, almost expecting the card to be gone. And yet there it was, clear as day. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he slowly placed his fingers over the card, feeling a sudden electricity as he came into contact with it. And again: he understood now.

He played the card face up, the magnificent dragon materializing in front of them. The corners of his lips once again formed into his crude smirk, eyes rolling up to meet those of Bakura's.

"Red Eyes Black Dragon," he started, bringing one hand up to point directly at Bakura. "End this duel." The dragon reared up, fire forming deep within its belly, through its throat and spiralled straight at the other duellist, destroying his face-down card and bringing his life points down to zero.

 **J:** The spirit's ancient magic was beginning to fade and with it, did his façade. He was still inhabiting Joey's body, using it as shell for him to manipulate, but now Kaiba could quite clearly see the white-haired male in all his evil glory. The spirit laughed manically, clutching at his sides as he bowled over in fits.

"That's right, Kaaaaiba! Took you long enough to figure it out." Bakura said, taunting the brunette in the hopes to get a rise out of him. He smirked, remembering that Pegasus had put Kaiba in the Shadow Realm before, the sly devil and rolled his eyes.

He watched as Kaiba drew a card, preparing himself for the duel's final move, expecting the glorious Blue Eyes White Dragon to appear out on the field. But instead, Bakura was shocked to see the Red Eyes Black Dragon, Joey's signature card. The spirit's eyes widened in disbelief, his mouth agape as he watched the heat of molten lava boil inside the Dragon's stomach, preparing to attack.

"H-How..?! How could you- No, no, this isn't possible!" Bakura was now screaming, the veins on his neck bulbous and pulsing up his face and to his forehead as he saw a flash of bright light heading towards him.

Joey looked up into the darkness, feeling his Red Eyes near-by. He smiled to himself before lowering his head, his shaggy blonde locks covering his face.

"Thanks pal," He murmured under his breath, a small, relieved laugh escaping his lips.

"NOOOOOOO!"

The force of the dragon's attack sent Bakura hurtling backwards in a cloud of dust, his arms brought forward to protect his face from the onslaught. The numbers on his Life Point counter tumbled down to zero in a matter of milliseconds, leaving the spirit barely able to stand, steam exuding from his body and disappearing into the atmosphere.

"I won't..." He finally murmured quietly, shaking his head violently. "I WON'T LOSE."

Pulling Joey's deck free and throwing the duel disk roughly to the floor, Bakura laughed murderously before taking as many cards as he could in his hands and beginning to bend them opposite ways with the intent of tearing the deck to shreds.

"CAN YOU SEE THIS WHEELER? CAN YOU SEE WHAT I'M DOING TO YOUR PRECIOUS DECK?!"

 **K:** As Bakura's life points disintegrated, all Seto could do was watch, wide eyed and smirking from ear to ear. How did the spirit think he was possibly going to get away with it? Especially with someone like Seto? Someone who secretly paid so much attention to the blonde boy? He should have known from the second he heard the boy speaking, let alone how it came to his duelling tactics.

"Consider it possible." Seto scoffed, the light from his duel disk dimming alongside the Red Eyes Black Dragon. It was almost as if Bakura's psychosis was just calming Seto even more, the more angry the white haired spirit got, the more composed the brunette became. He didn't even have to look at him - he knew the spirit was suffering... just as he intended. Removing his deck from his disk he carefully took aside Joey's trademark card, slipping it into one of the deep pockets of his trench coat. 'He'll need this later.' he made a mental note.

The brunette began to walk away, sending a hand signal to his driver to start the car up. A pool of white light flooded the two men as the limo's light flashed back on, his driver flashing a thumbs up.

"I WON'T LOSE." he heard the spirit screaming.

"Too late for that-" Seto sneered, turning on his heel to face the spirit once more, eyes locking. "What do you think you're doing?!" he barked, watching as the spirit began to warp Joey's cards in his hands as if they were putty. In mere seconds he was parallel to the blonde boy, almost as if he had hovered through the air, his strides long and full of intention. Effortlessly, he grabbed the spirit by the wrist, twisting his arm around his back and over his head, holding him in a dead lock. "I suggest you drop them." he paused, tightening his grip around Bakura's wrist. "Now."

 **J:** Joey lifted his head, suddenly feeling a stab in his chest like someone had plunged a blade deep into his heart. He gasped for air, falling to his knees, the impact making the darkness below him ripple like a stone hitting water. Flashes of consciousness invaded his vision. Night time. An alley. Darkness. His deck. It's bending, twisting out of shape, tearing and being destroyed...

"Bakura... Don't!" Joey wheezed, feeling tears prick at his eyes out of desperation and pain. He could feel his deck, every single card, every monster. His friends whom he relied on. They had never let him down in a duel before. They had never left him alone. Every morning when his father awoke in a drunken stupor and punched the boy square in the face, the cards have been there to comfort him. When he was failing at school, bullying kids weaker than him, his cards were what brought him friends and set him on the straight and narrow. And now, here he was, stuck in the Shadow Realm, unable to save the creatures that had so often saved him.

"I'm sorry... There's nothing I can do..." The blonde growled through gritted teeth as the tears fell from his cheeks and into the black abyss beneath him.

"Joey."

The boy lifted his head at the sound of his name.

"Bakura? What are you doing here?"

The white-haired boy came closer to Joey, a soft smile on his face. He knelt down to the blonde, resting a hand on his shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"You can get out of here, Joey. I can help you. You just need to fight."

Joey shook his head, defeated.

"No, there's nothing I can do. I'm stuck here for-"

"-Listen to me, Joey Wheeler. If I can get out of here, so can you. Now fight. Focus. Think of your friends, Yugi, Tea, Tristan, your sister Serenity and think of your deck. Do it Joey, you can escape the Shadow Realm..."

There was a burst of white light, unlike anything the teen had seen before. He lifted his hand to shield his eyes, but somehow it shone through his flesh and bone and continued to drown him until all he could see was white.

Bakura was laughing, as usual, to himself. He relished the pain which spiked up his arm and down his spine and cried out at the sharp pinch of his wrist. By now, he could sense Bakura inside of the vessel as well and knew the fool had begun to meddle. Admitting defeat, Bakura twisted his head in an unholy position towards Kaiba and smirked.

"Hard to think you care nothing for this mutt, Kaiba."

A moment later and Bakura had been forced out of Joey's body.

Joey could feel nothing, see nothing, it was darkness again but not like the Shadow Realm. This darkness was peaceful and calming. He was unconscious. Unconscious but breathing, alive and in his own body. With Bakura's image fading in the real world, Joey appeared before Kaiba. He slumped lifelessly against the brunette, head rested in the crook of his neck, fast asleep and recuperating.

 **K:** Seto didn't let up his grip, cerulean eyes forming hateful slits as the spirit twisted his head, every bone in his neck cracking as he did so. If Seto had been of less confidence, he probably would have thrown up at the sight... especially coming from Joey Wheeler. As the spirit spoke, every word cut at the brunette's hard exterior and made him shift in his skin.

But there he stood: one large, slender hand coiled around the blonde boy's now limp wrist as if he was never going to let go. His focus blurred slightly as he stared out into open space, beyond Joey Wheeler and beyond himself.

"Fucking Bakura..." he muttered, clarity un-fogging his mind again. Under Joey's weight he couldn't help but lean slightly, one knee falling to the floor as he held the smaller boy's body. He was so... light? So fragile. 'Has he been eating properly?' Seto couldn't help but wonder, gently loosening his grip around the boy's wrist to reveal red hand-marks. Oops.

"Mr. Kaiba!" his driver bellowed, his silhouette being the first thing to come into view through the harsh glare of the limousine's headlights. The stocky - yet short - man in a suit stood there, mouth wide and eyes even wider. He had seen the whole thing. It was safe to say that after years of experience with Seto Kaiba, he was pretty used to odd things happening... but that doesn't mean it shocked him any less. Seto looked up, never letting go of the blonde boy. What was he supposed to say to this? How did he explain this? It was surely none of his driver's business?

"Uh..." he started, now beginning to stand whilst trying to lower Joey onto the ground gently.

"Just bring him home." his driver said with a particular certainty. There was a silence as Seto shifted awkwardly, once again brushing hair from his eyes. His driver took a step backwards towards the limo, making a gesture with his head towards the vehicle. "Come on."

His driver headed back over to the limo and opened the back door for the two boys and waited patiently (something he was used to). Seto sighed, eyes scanning the boy that was now laying completely unconscious on the floor at his feet. Almost nervously, he inspected the area, just to make sure that no one was going to actually SEE Seto Kaiba being kind. Ever. After deciding the coast was clear, he bent down and in one fell swoop, scooped the blonde boy up into his arms, golden hair tickling Seto's face as he did so. With a frown he blew the hair out of his face and made his way back to the limo, one arm under Joey's legs and the other under his shoulders so the boy's head was supported. He slid into the opened door, his driver closing it behind him. Carefully as ever he played Joey on the seat next to him, so his head was close to the brunette's lap.

"Thanks, Charlie." he thanked his driver as the limo started and they began their journey back to Seto's mansion.

It almost felt like the limo itself was driving was special care as not to wake the sleeping blonde. It was clear that Charlie was driving slower than usual and even Seto found himself breathing quieter and softer in fear that it would stir the boy. 'What am I thinking?' he sighed mentally, glancing down to the blonde boy momentarily before looking back out of his passenger window as he caught the first sight of his mansion appearing in the distance. 'Guess we'll find out.'

The limo rolled comfortably through the large, decorative steel gates, "S K" engraved into the thick metal in a fancy, old fashioned font. The vehicle began to shudder slightly as the pulled into the long cobbled drive, extravagantly lined with blooming trees. Once again Seto looked down to the sleeping boy just to make sure that it wasn't waking him.

"Slower." he practically whispered, making eye contact with his driver in the rear mirror. They began to slow even more, minimizing the juddering. The pathway eventually led up to a large circular square, a small patch of grass drowning amongst the sea of white and grey cobbles. The limo pulled to a stop and Seto's door was pulled open for him once more.

He stepped out onto his home turf, looking up towards the spectacular mansion that he called home. The building was nothing short of an architectural master piece. Ivy lined the whole front of the mansion, twisting and turning around the thick, white stone. The brunette walked around to the other side, holding a hand up to his house keepers who were currently scuttering around to the scene, ready to take Joey in themselves. This was Seto's job. He dismissed them without even saying a word. He opened the limo door and cusped the boy in his arms again, bringing him tightly against his chest. He straightened up and began to carry the boy effortlessly through to the main entrance of his home, ignoring the looks of his multiple house keepers.

"Seto!" a shrill voice cried as he entered into the main hall, still holding Joey close to his body, trying not to drown in all of the boy's hair. Mokuba came rushing down the main stair set that was in the middle of the room, the deep red of the carpets contrasting immensely against his raven hair. As the CEO's brother came hurtling down, Seto couldn't help but wince slightly, turning his shoulder to Mokuba, trying to protect Joey from imminent impact. Thankfully, the boy was able to stop himself in time. "... Joey?" he questioned, eyebrows furrowed close together.

"Don't ask." Seto rolled his eyes, beginning to walk past his little brother and go back up the stairs the boy just emerged from.

"How can I not ask?!"


	3. Uninvited House Guest

**J:** Joey was lost in the darkness, gently floating through the calm. He exhaled slowly, feeling his eyes shut as he ran a hand through his thick blonde hair. He grinned, feeling a gentle vibration in his back, soothing him further. The gentle movement was in fact the car tyres of Kaiba's car running over the tarmac of Domino City. Instead of unsettling the blonde, it made him relax further, like a child falling asleep in the back of his parents' car at night...

"Joey."

The blonde opened one eye, wondering if it was Bakura again. He threw himself up into a sitting position like a petulant child being forced to wake up for school.

"What nooooow?" He moaned, his eyes blinking away the sleep before focusing on what looked like Buster Blader in front of him.

"Joey. You're getting lost. You need to wake up."

The teen frowned, staring at his duel monster before blowing air from his lips and shrugging.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let me sleep some mo- WOAAHH!" Joey's eyes shot open and his arms flailed as he felt himself being hauled up into the air, carried by the Goblin Attack Force.

"Fellas, fellas, please! Put me down!.. Oof."

The Goblins did as they were told, throwing Joey into a pile of... wool? They were pastel pink, yellow and blue and before Joey could settle down and get comfortable again, faces revealed themselves, causing him to yelp in surprise.

"Scape Goat?! What are you guys doing here?"

"Joey."

The blonde looked up from his seat on the floor to see Ginzo, standing over him menacingly. The teen gulped, a sudden wave of fear washing over him, his complexion paling in response.

"Wake up."

 **K:** "Seto... really, what's happening?! It's like 3am, where were you? You said you'd be back at 11 latest!" Mokuba whinged, doing a full 360 and following his brother and the unconscious boy back up the magnificent stairwell. Quite clearly, the fact that Joey was passed out meant nothing to the boy. Seto groaned, visibly exhausted by his brother's questions.

"Mokuba..." the brunette warned, glancing at his sibling from the corner of his eye - a look that you did not want to be receiving from Seto Kaiba. But the younger Kaiba brother was accustomed to it, sticking his tongue back out in response.

"So what are you gonna do with him?" he changed subject immediately, a very good insight into how the boy's mind worked. The raven haired boy cocked his head at Joey as they reached the first landing to the mansion.

"Good question."

"Is he staying the night-" Seto groaned again at the question, practically forgetting that the boy in his arms was in a fragile state.

"Mokuba!"

"Okay... okay. Whatever. As long as you're back now."

Seto and Mokuba parted ways for the time being, the younger boy veering off to the left, down the hall and up yet another set of stairs, probably off to one of his many rooms.

"And go to sleep!" Seto called after the boy, nose crinkling at the top slightly as he leaned to the side with his head, making sure he watched his brother go up the stairs. Practically as soon as he said it he flinched, glancing back down to the boy in his arms. God, he was bad at all of this. Looking after a little brother and a puppy? Hard work.

They entered into a large room, the floor a plush, light grey carpet. As Seto walked, his foot prints remained on the carpet for a few seconds before the material puffed back out again, almost like foot prints at the sea side when the waves kiss the sand. The room was predominantly white and grey - the walls a light cream, the floor light grey and the velvet curtains being a crushed dark grey. The bedding adorning the double bed was dark grey too, almost black, contrasting against the white headboard. There was accents of bright yellow - two decorative cushions on the bed, a singular rug and of course: Joey Wheeler's golden hair. Gently Seto slipped the boy onto the bed, leaving him on top of the covers as he felt slightly too awkward to tuck him in. As Mokuba asked: what was he going to do with him? The answer was wait.

An hour must have passed before Seto started to get a little bit fidgety. Kind of like a kid at a pet shop, where you can only look at the animals and not touch them as much as you want to. He had pulled up one of the gorgeous Victorian seats from the desk in the room and placed it at the side of the bed. He had propped both elbows up on the arms, hands brought together and his chin rested atop them. Cerulean eyes were tired and heavy and yet never left the sleeping boy, it was like he was transfixed, day dreaming of the boy's amber eyes opening. Suddenly, he stood. He bunched his hands into fists and straight away, sat down again. He scoffed at himself for being so impatient. But yet, he stood again. Leaning over the boy on the bed, he placed his hands on the very outer edge, careful as not to actually touch the boy. He squinted and leant in, staring right at the boy's face.

"Fucking wake up will you?" he murmured, half to himself but also half to Joey, as if for some reason, it would stir the boy.

 **J:** Joey stared up at Ginzo, his prized card next to Red Eyes. Never before had he looked at the monster in such detail and in such proximity. His head, like red and white paint mixed to make an unusual pink colour harboured vicious and angry looking veins that trailed the circumference of the monster's head. His armour, green and yellow, scaled like a lizard but with the added deadly spikes that were sure to capture any prey coming too close. And finally, the eyes.. Red, staring directly into Joey's amber ones. A shudder ran through the boy's body. He could feel the scape goats beneath him shaking in fear, small whining noises like a guinea pig would sound, coming from their mouths. Joey picked up his hand and stroked the blue one to his right softly, trying to comfort the scared little sheep.

"Okay Ginzo, I geddit."

Standing, the teen only coming to about half of the monster's height, he swallowed the fear and the thick saliva lining his mouth and forced a grin.

"You had me going for a minute, buddy!" He laughed nervously, his smile soon fading as he saw no hint of a reaction from Ginzo. Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Joey found himself laughing again as he tried to subtly side-step away from the 7ft beast. He eventually got away, sighing with relief before seeing a familiar face in front of him.

"Time Wizard! You're here too? This is nuts..."

The clock nodded solemnly before gesturing into the darkness, a tiny pin prick of light coming into view.

"Keep walking Joey, no matter what. You will want to stay forever in this darkness, that's what the Shadow Realm does to you... Once you visit and escape, it is not always so simple to move on."

The blonde frowned, not quite understanding. It was like when Yugi went on about some in depth duel monsters strategy that he couldn't quite understand. He knew it was important but decided when the time came, he'd just wing it and maybe things would be fine.

"When you wake up, you will not remember anything of this evenings events. Good luck, my friend."

Joey shrugged before grinning, "Thanks Time Wizard, smell ya later~"

Giving a short salute to the stubby clock, Joey turned on his heel and headed towards the small light in the distance, a soft smile on his face.

It was a slow process waking up, Joey's body having to get used to its original owner being back in place. Once the cogs and wheels in the boy's mind had slowly begun to work, Joey set about opening his eyes. Painfully, cautiously, the blonde awoke properly. His amber orbs blinked away the blurriness a couple times before focusing and seeing cerulean staring back at him, inches away from his face.

"Kaiba..?" Joey murmured, his mouth dry and his throat ringing in pain from the two uttered syllables.

 **K:** Seto was honestly just about to give up. He was about to turn around, walk out of the room, shut the door and go to sleep himself. It must have been past 4am at this point, although, time was just starting to blending into itself now. Seto had been awake for probably about 30 hours or so due to his recent business meeting, travel back and then of course, the whole "Bakura incident." And then he saw it. A flickering of eyelashes, a sudden glisten of amber. Was he...?

"Jesus!" the brunette spat, flinging himself from the side of the bed into the middle of the room. Despite physically watching the boy wake up, it had pretty much felt like a dream. Joey's voice was like the moment when you're falling in your sleep and just about to hit the floor. Jesus, indeed. He stood there for a moment, completely lost for words. He was clearly flustered - his hair spiking in different directions, eyes dark and tired, his trademark trench coat laying on the desk, the CEO clad only in a black turtleneck and jeans. The boy's face was soft and surprised but slowly, that changed. His brows furrowed into a tight knot in the middle of his face, arms crossing over his chest. "Ugh, what?" he challenged boy as if to say 'what are you looking at?'... Even though... Joey clearly was still half asleep, confused and concussed whilst Seto had a full understanding of what just happened. Sometimes he just couldn't help antagonising his pet.

Joey: Joey frowned, feeling his forehead ache from the movement. He closed one eye and wrinkled his nose and mouth as the bright lights in the room burnt at his eyes tired, despite them having been closed for a good long time now. Unbeknown to him, he'd been in darkness for a lot longer. Slowly, feeling came back into his body. He legs twitched, his fingers wiggled and the fatigue left his body. He turned his head from side to side, looking at the fancy décor around him and deciding he was most definitely not home and not in his neighbourhood. The room coming into focus, Joey let his head roll to the right where he was able to rest his tired eyes on Kaiba. He looked like crap.

"I must be dreamin'..." The blonde murmured, his eyes closing and opening lethargically, "Or I must be goin' insane if Seto Kaiba is standin' in front of me and not callin' me a loser or a dog or a mutt."

The blonde let his head fall back against the pillow as he exhaled heavily, finally able to lift a hand to run it over his face, his fingers tingling as they were pulled back into life.

"So. Question, why the heck am I lyin' in your bed, Kaiba? And why do you look like shit?" He said with a half grin, unable to pull himself up into a sitting position just yet.

Kaiba: Seto watched the boy in silence as he began to start waking up properly. His eyes pin pointed each part of the blonde's body as it began to wake up - the wrinkling of his nose, the twitching of his legs and back up to the wiggling of his fingers. 'The Shadow Realm does that...' the brunette thought to himself as he scanned the boy up and down once, twice and then three times.

He noted Joey's mention of his lack of insults. He could absolutely rectify that... well, maybe if he had a little more energy in him.

"MY bed?" Seto questioned out loud, obviously insulted. "You think I'd sleep in a room like this?" He could practically hear his interior designer's souls yowling in pain. "That's hilarious. You're in one of the spare rooms, mutt." he spat, approaching the bed once more and looking down at Joey. "Oh, also, you're welcome." the brunette said sarcastically, flashing a completely fake 'fuck you' smile at the blonde boy. A few moments passed and Seto's wrist watch began beeping, signalling him that it was now 4:30 am. Sigh. "... Do you really not remember anything?" he couldn't help but question, now just looking at the blonde out of the corner of his eye, his wrist still pulled up to his face as if he was still looking at his watch.

 **J:** Joey swallowed, the pain in his throat evident again. He tried to gather enough energy to make himself sit up, but he just couldn't find it. He muscles no longer ached but it felt like he'd just been at school from 8 in the morning till 10 at night without any lunch breaks, he was that tired. His stomach growled in response to him thinking food which got him thinking. When was the last time he ate? What time even was it? What happened to him? A slight panic began to set in before it was distracted by Kaiba's insults. The blonde grinned, staying quiet as he inhaled deeply and pushed himself upright. He fell back, now upright, his back leaning against the bright white headboard.

"Of course, Kaiba. My fault for insultin' his highness' taste in cushions and curtains." The blonde said tiredly, one arm rested lazily across his stomach. He frowned at the beeping of the watch and looked down at his wrist. There was an unusual red ring around it. It was sore to move, unlike any of his other body parts which just felt a little stiff.

"I..." Joey shut his eyes, focusing hard. After a few moments, his eyes snapped open and an angry cry left his lips, his left hand curling into a tight fist. "I don't remember anythin'! It's all blank," He said weakly, frustration swallowing him up as he let his head fall back against the headboard in defeat. His amber eyes, once down sulking, looked up into Kaiba's with a lost innocence.

"What happened, Kaiba?"

 **K:** Almost on que with Joey's, Seto's stomach also gurgled, a deep churn within his belly. It had probably been a long time since he had indulged in a proper meal, let alone eaten anything at all. Business meetings tended to do that to him.

"Apology accepted." the brunette huffed, falling back down into the chair that he had pulled over to the side of the bed. He propped one of his elbows up on the chair's arm again and rested his head on his hand, cerulean meeting amber once more. He really didn't have any idea, did he? And how on earth was Seto going to explain all of that? 'Oh yeah, Bakura took over your body, turned you into an asshole, I duelled him SOMEHOW with your Red Eyes and now you're here' probably didn't sound completely truthful... even though it was.

The brunette couldn't help but flinch slightly as he saw that flash of confusion and innocence in Joey's eyes. It was a look he was all too familiar to from his brother and it got him every time. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he looked away, remaining composed.

"Don't worry, mutt. You're fine now." he reassured, making sure not to make eye contact again. He stood, still looking away from the boy, eyes focused on the door "You're hungry. I'll get my house keepers to make you something and I'll explain a bit better." Seto exclaimed, not even considering that the boy might not be strong enough to get himself up. Without even thinking, he strode towards the door, stopping with his hand on the door handle to peer back to the boy on the bed. Guilt hit him. "Can you manage?" he asked quietly; softly. A tone he did not normally use with the blonde... or not even at all.

 **J:** Joey exhaled and felt his bottom lip protrude from under his top one in a sort of pout. Kaiba had always been this way, from the first day they'd met. Joey had tried to ask where he'd gone to school before moving to Domino High and Kaiba had brushed him off, suppressing the blonde's questions by placating him with a roundabout answer, completely avoiding the question that had been asked in the first place. Among many of Kaiba's annoying traits, that was the worst, the lying. The blonde was pretty sure deep down, Seto didn't realise he was doing it or at least a part of him realised it but didn't know how to stop. Either way, Joey knew that something else had happened that night that Kaiba was refusing to tell him about it. He'd find out what it was some way or another.

Joey clutched at his stomach which was now growling quite loudly in protest. He leant his head back against the headboard and smiled as he began to think about food. Potato chips, ice cream, spaghetti, hot dogs, cheesy fries, popcorn...

"Man, I am starvin'..." The blonde murmured to himself, mouth practically salivating at his own imagination. His eyes glazed over but cleared at the sudden change of Kaiba's tone. Joey glanced over at him before looking back at the room. Despite having no memory of what had happened earlier, Joey did notice a certain... uneasiness about him. He felt safe being around Kaiba, strangely enough, like the teen would be able to handle himself if something went wrong (the same feeling he had around Yugi) but despite knowing this, Joey still felt uncomfortable. Like something or someone was nearby, watching him, breathing down his neck. He didn't want to be left alone in this room, no way.

"Ye, ye, I'll be fine, Kaiba!" The blonde said with a grin as he inhaled deeply before throwing his legs over the side of the bed. It took him a few moments to stand, his balance off slightly, his hand gripping at the bedside table to his right. He looked up at Kaiba, stubborn pride swallowing him up.

"I got it," Joey said firmly, holding a hand up to stop Seto from helping him. Gathering his strength, Joey walked forward. With every step came a sense of nostalgia, like he was remembering to ride a bicycle again. His legs and feet familiarised themselves with his steps and soon, their weak, jelly-like consistency hardened up and he was able to walk properly again. He was slow, but he could carry himself. The teen beamed with pride and success, glancing at Kaiba for a moment to flash the brunette his grin.

"Told ya."


	4. M&M's and Crisp Sandwiches

**Margaret:** Hey guys! :D Just wanna say thank you all SO much for the views that we got for the first 3 chapters. It's really encouraging! **WE FINALLY HAVE PHYSICAL CONTACT WOOO**. We're probably going to keep uploading the chapters in bursts of 3 until it gets closer towards the point we're at in the roleplay now, but that's still a way off, so there's plenty of content ready for you guys! Again thank you so much, don't forget to **review and follow**! We update regularly and if you have any suggestions for the plot let us know. :)

 **Ash:** Hi guys! Just want to say thank you SO much for the support and views we're getting on our little fic. It's incredible to think some of you from Canada and China are reading this! We're going to keep adding chapters, hopefully you'll like them too! It gets a lot more juicier soon, don't you worry! Thanks again!

* * *

 **K:** It was true. Seto always managed to find a way around questions that he didn't like or just plain out made him feel uncomfortable. It was part business, part his own personality. Lying was just a trait of his that he had managed to hone to perfection over the years, caring very little for whether it hurt other people's feelings. Even with Mokuba he lied and about even more important things that silly Duel Monsters.

Cerulean eyes traced the blonde boy as he began to shift in the bed, throwing his legs over the side victoriously. As the boy began to speak, Seto shrugged, back turned to the boy again as he started to open the door. All trace of whatever emotion the brunette showed just seconds ago was gone - another trait of his.

"Good." he said, bluntly. "Now can you hurry up?" he taunted, turning the glass handle on the door and entering into the hall.

Seto led the boy down the long hall way, not even bothering to walk slow for the weaker boy. In his mind, even just the question of 'can you manage' was enough, he didn't need to do anything else for him. Anyway, walking slow was a pet peeve of his anyway. With long strides he reached the top of the stairwell first, stopping to look back at Joey.

"Now don't touch anything, mutt." he warned, turning back to make his way down the grand stair case which led back into the main entrance hall that only hours ago he had carried Joey through. 'Did he even remember that?' Seto pondered to himself, the corner of his mouth twitching as he did so. He hoped not. Throughout Seto's entire life he'd always struggle being able to openly show kind gestures towards people. Heck; he even struggled to privately show kind gestures towards people! He was brought up to believe it was a sign of weakness and no matter how much he knew that wasn't necessarily true, you can't shake off what's been bred into you. Gozaburo Kaiba was a cruel, cruel man.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Seto veered right, his feet create a padding noise on the cold marble floor. They entered into ANOTHER hallway, this one much smaller and narrower than the other. To the left, there was an open archway leading to an extravagant dining room - chandelier and all. To the right, a door to a bathroom and straight ahead was another large open archway, the kitchen in clear view.

"Sarah," he spoke softly to the aging woman who was perched on a stool by the island in the middle of the room. "Could you?" She just smiled and nodded, taking off her glasses and resting them atop of the book she was reading. She disappeared off to the pantry room, only rustling to be heard. She had obviously heard the commotion as he had come in and assumed the older Kaiba brother would need feeding, although, she didn't expect guests. Seto's staff was kind of used to "late night" hours.

"Take a seat." the brunette directed at Joey, without even really looking at him. He gestured towards one of the stools that was by the kitchen counters. Again, Seto led the way but instead of sitting he went one of the upper cupboards, pulling out a bottle of whiskey and then sourcing two tumblers from a nearby cupboard. "Thirsty?"

 **J:** Joey's smile faded as he was met with a blunt appraisal of his actions and told to hurry up and couldn't help but roll his eyes, somewhat annoyed.

 _'It wouldn't kill ya to be nice sometimes, Kaiba... .'_ Joey thought to himself as he left the monotone bedroom that left him feeling so uneasy. He walked slowly, feeling suddenly exhausted, like his life force had been stolen away, leaving him an empty shell. He felt a little dizzy after a moment and clutched onto the mahogany banister that lead down to the grand staircase. He shut his eyes, trying to force the feeling away, his ears twitching to the sound of Kaiba already trotting down the stairs.

 _'Come on, Joey. Don't let that big shot get ya down.'_

Forcing himself up, the blonde followed after Kaiba, replying to his 'don't touch anything' comment with a quiet growl.

"There's nuthin' worth touchin' in here anyway,' Joey murmured somewhat breathlessly as he took the stairs down to the foyer, the grandness of the mansion starting to affect him. He paused at the last stair, mostly to regain some energy, but also to admire his surroundings. It was true, the rich really did live in luxury. Joey's eyes followed Kaiba to the right where he sighed tiredly and followed after him. Whatever happened to him must have been pretty bad for Kaiba to have taken him back to his house. Joey glanced down at his wrist and rubbed at it gently, massaging the tender muscles that ached at the light touch.

Passing through the dining room, Joey began to have thoughts of home. His crappy little apartment. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and small living space that was practically his Dad's anyway. His own room was probably half the size of Kaiba's toilet. The blonde took a seat on the kitchen stool and laughed silently under his breath, shaking his head. They really were from two different worlds.

"Hm?" The blonde looked up to see a dark coloured liquid in a fancy decanter in Seto's hand, "Nah, I don't drink." Joey said with a sad smile, remembering his father's stale breath stinking to high heaven of alcohol whenever he got in Joey's face, yelling and spitting profanities, constantly accusing him of being a mistake, a waste of space, better off dead...

 **K:** Honestly, Seto didn't even wait for the blonde to answer. By the time that Joey had even started to open his mouth, the brunette was already half way through pouring his drink. It wasn't a lot: just a few millimetres in the bottom of the tumbler, probably not even a shots worth. To Seto it was just 'winding down', he was under the assumption that everyone did it. For him it was just a good way to de-stress, especially after business meetings, let alone fighting an ancient spirit for his pet's soul. Tiring stuff.

"Don't be ridiculous, Wheeler." he shrugged him off, pushing the tumbler towards him on the counter. With both elbows on the granite topped counter, he leant his weight against them, holding his own tumbler in his hands, backside pushed out to evenly distribute his weight. "Sara- my house keeper," he corrected himself. "Is making up god knows what. With the all food you won't even feel the effect of the alcohol. Hah! You'll probably need it anyway." Seto joked crudely, referring to Joey's lack of memory. He quickly realised what he had said - even worse, how he had said it - and glanced back up to the blonde, eyes slightly softer now. "You really don't remember anything, do you?" he questioned, the corner of his mouth pulled down into a slant.

Moments after Seto had finished his sentence, Sarah came floating back in holding two trays, both with an array of snack-like foods on them. She placed them in the middle of the brunette on the blonde, eyes closed in a pleasant smile. One tray held things such as peanuts, potato chips, a few small sandwiches cut in half as well as a small bowl of pre-popped popcorn. The other try was full of things like chocolates, M&Ms and Hershey's kisses. It was quite obvious that the Kaiba household kept a big stock of these things... mainly for Mokuba, although, Seto did enjoy to indulge once in a while. Seto flashed the woman a genuine smile, dismissing her with a nod and she disappeared back into the pantry, apparently to grab more food items.

"I guess it'll only be fair to tell you what happened and put you out of your misery..."

 **J:** Joey saw the tumbler being poured for him and sighed, suddenly filled with a morbid curiosity. What did that stuff actually taste like? He'd smelt it on his Dad hundreds of times, but never had any of the liquid passed his lips. He stretched out his hand and rolled the liquid around a few times, analysing its colour and smell. It smelt fresh and heavy, something indulgent that probably only rich people like Kaiba drank. Fidgeting uncomfortably on his stool, Joey held the drink to his chest as he watched the brunette relax into his drink. The blonde licked his lips and shrugged, if Kaiba could drink this stuff, so could he. Just as the glass touched his bottom lip, Joey's ears twitched. He immediately set the drink down, eyes narrowed. He was about to answer Kaiba when the smiling house keeper came back and distributed the food before them. If Joey had been just ever-so-slightly hungrier, he would have ignored Kaiba's comment and ploughed straight into the good stuff, but he somehow couldn't shake his words.

"Yeah," Joey said stiffly, stretching out his hand to pour the contents of his tumbler into the other's, "I don't remember nuthin', so why don't ya fill me in on all the gory details?"

Taking a sandwich, pulling it apart and stuffing some crisps inside of it, Joey took a bite and swallowed, his eyes never leaving the brunette's. He was tired now, he wanted to know what happened.

"Maybe you can explain this, too? I'm guessin' it has somethin' to do with tonight." The blonde said accusingly as he pointed to his inflamed wrist, having no idea that Kaiba had actually done that to him.

 **K:** Seto watched Joey with a certain intensity as he eyed up his drink, swirling it out and all round just avoiding drinking the damn stuff. His eyes narrowed in time with Joey's, cerulean and amber bouncing off of each other, creating electricity. The brunette just watched as the alcohol was poured from one tumbler to the other, showing absolutely no sign of how pissed off he was at the other's actions. As Joey spoke, Seto brought his own glass to his lips and tipped his head back, taking half of the liquid into his mouth and then straight down his throat. He didn't even shiver, frown, nothing. If anything, he was visibly less wound up as soon as he placed the tumbler back on the counter top. Once again, he slid the glass back over to Joey with the remaining liquid in it. He would get his own way.

The brunette also grabbed for some food, instead of opting for the savoury, he went straight for the sweet, a slender hand plunging into the bowl of M&M's. As Joey spoke, the brunette popped one of the chocolates onto his tongue, bringing it into his mouth quickly. It was a bad habit that both he and his brother had acquired, somehow. Upon the blonde's second question, Seto looked down to what Joey was pointing at. _'Jesus.'_ he thought to himself, eyes widening slightly. He had no idea that he had hurt the boy that bad. Well, not like it even was Joey at the time anyway, but still.

"Oh. Yeah, that was me." he said oh-so-matter-of-factly and composed himself quickly, making absolute eye contact with the blonde boy. He pushed himself away from the counter and stood to his full height, eye contact never waning. Seto paused for a moment, not entirely sure on how to start the story. He didn't want to completely freak the fuck out of Joey immediately, so he assumed it would be best to just ease into things. He placed another M&M on his tongue and swallowed. "You remember Bakura from school, right?"

 **J:** Joey watched as the drink was slid back to him and sighed. He hunched over the counter, rubbing at his face tiredly. This guy... he was like a kid sometimes. Suddenly feeling a wave of Brooklyn rage, Joey snatched at the tumbler and poured the drink down his throat. Immediately he felt the burn. His throat felt like it was on fire and the strength of the alcohol choked his breathing, leaving him helpless. But alas, Joey was also born with a stubborn streak. He grimaced if not for a moment before composing himself, his eyes watering but meeting Kaiba's, a smug smirk on his face.

"Not bad, I've had better," He goaded, voice wavering slightly at the end. He knew Seto knew he'd never had a drink before, but the blonde knew his words would piss him off anyway.

Clearing his throat which was still burning, Joey took another sandwich and swallowed it quickly, the bread acting as a sort of padded release on his tender throat. He didn't understand how Kaiba could drink that, out of choice! He watched as the teen went straight for the M&M's, clearly not amused and was surprised as he hadn't pegged the brunette as much of a sweet tooth. Sweet and Kaiba never mixed.

He had no expected Kaiba to say that he had hurt his wrist.

"What!?" Joey half yelled, half hissed, the way the brunette was looking at him starting to get on his nerves, like he didn't care at all. The blonde calmed down, turning away from the kitchen counter to stare out at the door. Anything to get away from the nonchalant mug staring at him from behind.

"Yeah, course. He's a friend." Joey mumbled, sulking angrily like a petulant child.

 **K:** Seto couldn't help but half laugh, half scoff as he watched the blonde boy struggle with the burn of the alcohol. Granted, it's a tough feat, downing age old premium whiskey. And considering it was Joey's first time, he gave it a pretty damn good go. But still: the brunette couldn't help but find it hilarious.

"Oh, of course, mutt," he sneered, tilting his chin up slightly so he was looking down the bridge of his nose at the boy, looking down at him even more so than he already was. "I'm sure you regularly indulge in lavish $300 whiskeys." Seto just couldn't help but be sarcastic.

As the blonde boy yelled in response to what Seto had just revealed about practically dismembering his hand, all he could do was stand and stare, that typical 'so?' expression scrawled all over his face. Even when Joey turned away from him, he kept his eyes locked on the back of his head, knowing that the boy would feel his gaze burning through him. He loved the way he could get under Joey's skin and he loved the way the boy sulked even more so.

"A friend?" he repeated, shrugging his shoulders to himself. "I don't think 'friends' would send each other to shadow realm and then attempt to ruin their deck of Duel Monsters." Seto paused to eat another M&M. "Do you?"

 **J:** Joey folded his arms over his chest, suddenly feeling no longer hungry and just extremely tired. He kept his back rigid and his gaze focused solely on the door but after hearing Kaiba's words, his posture slumped. He turned in his seat, eyebrows knitted in confusion and then sudden horror. Completely ignoring the part about the Shadow Realm (he'd tackle that bombshell later) Joey jumped quickly to his feet, wavered slightly and then removed his deck of cards from his back pocket. Pushing the trays of food away from him and closing to Kaiba, Joey laid out all his cards, making sure they were all there and not damaged. The rising panic and fear could be seen in his amber eyes as he could quite clearly notice one card, his favourite and most loyal card, could not be seen.

"Kaiba!" Joey exclaimed, looking up at the brunette with genuine fear in his expression, "Where's my Red Eyes? Did Bakura..? Did that bastard take my Red Eyes?" The blonde was beginning to shake, his behind finding his stool where he sat, silent, eyes trained on the cards in front of him.

 **K:** Seto should have known that the blonde would have responded so irrationally. But then again, taking everything into context, it wasn't irrational at all, Seto was just very out-of-tune with emotions. Clearly. Joey could have been seriously hurt, his body had quite clearly been compromised from how fatigued and weak the boy was and yet, Seto couldn't help but find himself slightly alarmed by the boy's reaction. However, he remained silent, letting the blonde boy play out his actions as he knew there was no point at all trying to stop him. In a way, the CEO himself had almost forgot how genuinely awful the whole situation was. The look in Joey's eyes as Bakura played him like a puppet was something that made the hairs on the back of Seto's neck stand up.

"Wheeler..." he started, his voice trailing off to a mere murmur, cerulean eyes also scanning the boy's cards that were now splayed all over his counter tops. They both knew what they were looking for. As the two teens looked over the cards in unison, complete awareness washed over Seto. The Red Eyes. He had it. Of course he had it! That's how he beat Bakura in the first place. The situation seemed so bizarre and unreal that the CEO had obviously just tried to forget it, not wanting to consider what had actually happened, even though he very well understood the connection that him and the blonde boy had. Trying to keep his unease to himself, Seto backed away from the counter, slowly turning his back to Joey who was now asking him questions. How did he even respond to that? Should he tell the truth? Joey probably deserved it.

"No, no..." he began to reassure the panicked boy, sensing his absolute fear. Seto could only imagine what he would be like if he lost his precious Blue Eyes, regardless of owning three of them. "I-" Seto paused, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "No, he didn't. I have it." and just like that, he produced the Red Eyes from his black pocket, throwing it straight onto the counter in front of the boy as if it were loose change. Funny how he had put the card in his trench pocket straight after the duel and yet there it was: waiting, ready. In his back pocket as if God had willed it himself.

"We - me and Bakura - duelled." he made sure to clarify that. "I won. Of course. As for your Red Eyes..." he paused to run a hand through the front of his hair, ruffling it on the way out. "I forgot I had It." it wasn't necessarily a lie. "Damn spirit tried to con me into thinking it was in MY deck. Ridiculous. But whatever, there it is, so..."


	5. Where's my Red Eyes!

**J:** Joey could feel his heart hammering in his chest. It was almost painful. Suddenly he couldn't breathe and the worry from within him started to rise like the tide, threatening to drown him. Was he having a panic attack? His hand clutched at his shirt as he tried to calm himself down, his palms were sweating and his shoulders trembled. He tried to remember. This morning? No... Yesterday, or the day before yesterday? He couldn't remember, but whatever the day, he knew he was with Yugi, at school... talking about duelling. Every strategy Joey had suggested, he had involved his Red Eyes and Yugi had tried to explain that having the most powerful monster on the field wasn't necessary the key to winning. That was when he saw his Red Eyes last...

Blinking out of his daze, Joey looked up at Kaiba as his name was called.

"What?" Joey said almost breathlessly, his eyebrows arched in a way that made it look like he was about to cry at any moment. He watched the teen turn away for a moment before a very gentle breeze fell on his face and something landed in front of him. Joey looked down at the table, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"Red Eyes!"

Scooping the card up into his hands, Joey turned it over upside down, backwards, left and right, making sure there wasn't a single scratch or tear in it anyway. It was pristine and seemed to glisten in the dimmed kitchen lights. The blonde grinned, glancing over at the brunette who was looking to the side nonchalantly. Joey's grin faded to a soft smile as his shoulders relaxed and he wiped at his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. Placing the card on the counter with the rest of his deck, Joey skirted round the island so he was standing behind Kaiba. Quickly, before the teen could protest, Joey had slipped his arms around Seto's waist, his hands locking together on his front. He buried his face into Kaiba's back and hugged him tightly, a relief unlike anything else washing over him.

"Thank you, Kaiba. You have no idea how much this means to me." He was of course referring to his Red Eyes, nothing else. He didn't care how Kaiba had got it, why it was in his deck, why the hell him and Bakura were duelling and what that had to do with him- he didn't care, his deck was safe and sound, and his friends were with him again. That was all that mattered.

 **K:** That look. The look on his face. Was he going to cry? Seto said the wrong thing? Should he not have told Joey what had happened? All these questions rushed through his mind as he watched the teen scanning his card. The way he flipped it once, twice and even three times plucked at somewhere in the depths of Seto's chest, he couldn't help but feel the same relief that Joey was feeling. Clearly, the card meant much more to the boy than the CEO would probably ever be able to understand.

Seto began to lean against the counter again, exhaustion washing over his body once more after the sudden panic that filled the air over the blonde boy's card. He was just about to prop his elbows back up onto the granite top when suddenly... warmth. His mind took a moment or two to catch up to the whole situation and before he knew it, Joey Wheeler was hugging him. Holding him. Seto's body couldn't help but push up against the smaller boy's body as he was literally just about to bend over forward, the muscles in his stomach tensing not only as he felt Joey's hands clasp around his waist but also as his body jerked to a stand-still. Slowly and wobbly, still in the blonde's embrace, he straightened up a little, cheeks flushed ever-so-slightly. The only person who made contact with Kaiba like this was Mokuba and even now, at his age, it was rare. It felt nice. Genuinely nice.

"Yeah," Seto cleared his throat, remaining perfectly still, his body refusing to be able to react to the situation. "No problem." was the only words he could stifle out of his body, turning his head to the side ever so slightly so he could take a quick glance over his shoulder at the mess of blonde hair consuming his back. He felt the corners of his lips twitch and this time, it wasn't a frown.

"I hope you're still hungry~" a voice called from the other room causing Seto's skin to shudder so hard in shock that it almost hurt him. Without even thinking, he flinched away from the other boy, practically jumping to the other side of the kitchen, bringing a hand up to the back of his head and ruffling the back of his hair. "Mr. Kaiba," she frowned, placing two larger than life bowls of ramen noodles on the counter near where they were sat. "Are you okay?"

"Yep," he replied swiftly, shooting a look over to Joey. "Yes. Thanks, Sarah."

"Eat it quick or it's going to go cold, I didn't cook at 5am for nothing!"

 **J:** The relief over his Red Eyes soon started to fade and Joey found himself wondering why he had hugged Kaiba and why he wasn't as weirded out as he thought he might have been. Sure, he's hugged Yugi and Tristan before and it's been fine, but they were his best friends- the friendliest exchange he'd ever had with Kaiba was a middle finger behind his back when the CEO wasn't looking. But, despite his confused feelings, Joey didn't let go. He could feel Kaiba's body go rigid in his arms but was surprised that he didn't move away immediately. It gave the blonde a chance to focus completely on the brunette's body. He was wearing a thin, turtleneck that clung to him tightly, allowing Joey to feel the hardened, tone muscles underneath. He was warm, which surprised Joey, because for some stupid reason he assumed Kaiba to be cold all the time, physically and emotionally. He smelt good, like fresh linen mixed with a sharp yet smooth cologne. And his breathing, at first it was ragged, a little out of control, but as the seconds passed it evened out and Joey found himself mimicking the rhythm so that they inhaled and exhaled at the same time.

It all felt... right and the blonde found himself completely lost in the moment.

"Sh-Shit," Joey cursed, jumping away from Kaiba and skirting round the island so that he was firmly planted on the stool behind the counter, a cheesy smile pasted across his face.

"This looks great ma'am!" Joey blurted out, more loudly than expected, before pulling the bowl towards him and picking up the chopsticks. He slurped up the noodles and drank the broth so quickly he almost choked. Only after Sarah had left did Joey pause and look up at Kaiba, their gaze locked. No matter how much he wanted to pull away, he didn't, Joey stood his ground until his eyes began to water. He cleared his throat and turned to his right, collecting his cards together until they were in a neat pile.

"Yeah..." Joey murmured quietly, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost Red Eyes. He's my most powerful monster! Yugi always says it's not the powerful cards that win a game, or that make a great duellist... I dunno if he's right, but he is the King of Games I guess so I suppose he knows what he's talkin' 'bout!"

 **K:** "Think this looks great?" Sarah chuckled, throwing the towel she held the bowl with over her shoulder. "You should see what my cooking's like when it's NOT 5am! Anyway," she paused to turn to Seto, flashing that motherly smile at him again. "Enjoy, you two. Get some sleep!" and with that, she was gone again. Instead of heading out through the pantry, she left through the same archway that Seto and Joey entered in. Obviously, it was bed time - at least for her.

Seto couldn't help but watch Joey the whole time him and Sarah conversed, cerulean eyes locked onto the boy like a target. That smile. That stupid, cheesy smile that he always had! Seto couldn't help but feel his cheeks glow pink again, his own lips tugging into a smile. The body can sub consciously be like that, sometimes you just can't help but mimic the emotions that other people around you have, especially ones that you care about. As the blonde looked up, Seto didn't look away. He made a point of holding his gaze and apparently, so did Joey. This stare out seemed different, though. Seto didn't want to then go on to strangling the boy (an urge he often felt after having a stare out with the Wheeler boy) and in fact: he didn't even know what he wanted to do. And for someone like Seto Kaiba, that was a very strange phenomenon indeed. Luckily for the brunette, Joey broke the silence first. It suddenly felt quite awkward actually as he watched the blonde boy collecting and stacking his cards. For some reason, Seto was expecting another 'thank you' from the boy. Call it arrogance, but, he just wasn't expecting Joey to bring up Yugi - at all. So when he DID, it threw Kaiba off track entirely. Why was he bringing up Yugi? Now? They were having a moment... weren't they? Immediately, Seto's once soft facial features turned to stone again, frown lines forming in his forehead and cheeks.

"Right." the brunette said bluntly, now also sitting down on a stool on the opposite side of the counter to Joey. "And, who's 'Yugi' again? Sounds like a loser to me." Seto hissed, looking away. OBVIOUSLY, he knew who Yugi was. OBVIOUSLY, he was just saying it to hurt the blonde's feelings. But he couldn't help it. Eye for an eye and all that.

 **J:** Joey shrugged and looked down at his cards, happy they were safe. Now that his deck was sorted, he wanted to know more about what had happened that night. From what he could gather, Bakura was there and for some reason, he and Kaiba were duelling. At some point, Bakura tried to destroy his deck and for some reason, Kaiba had taken Joey home and he had passed out? And something about the Shadow Realm..?

 _'Did Bakura put me in the Shadow Realm?'_ Joey wondered, his forehead crinkling as he turned back to the bowl of ramen, finished the last strands of noodles before picking the bowl up in his hands and slurping back the salty broth. He licked his lips and watched as Kaiba came to sit down next to him on the stool, Joey's knees inches away from touching the side of the brunette's thigh. The blonde rolled his eyes, there was that childish attitude again.

"You know... short kid, spiky pink hair, always beats your ass in a duel," Joey chuckled, his eyebrows raising in pretend fear at the stone-cold look he got from Kaiba that could probably freeze over your soul.

"I'm jokin', Kaiba. Sheesh, calm down," The blonde said with a soft smile, leaning against the counter. He accidentally positioned his wrist in an awkward way, the contact bending the already inflamed tendons painfully. Joey yelped in pain and surprise, his eyes narrowing as he cradled his wrist against his chest.

"Yaouch... You sure did a number on me. Next time go easy on the wrist bendin', okay?"


	6. Dr Kaiba

**K:** Seto too began eating his ramen, be it slightly more composed that the blonde boy. Not that he was any less hungry - Jesus, he probably could have eaten the ramen, Joey and then HIMSELF he was that hungry, but he did it with a little bit more 'grace' than the other teen. He ignored the chop sticks that Sarah left out for them and grabbed his fork, pulling a whole pile of ramen out with it and waiting for it to cool before sticking it in his mouth. Chop sticks: one of the only things that Seto Kaiba was never able to defeat.

 _'That stupid fucking face.'_ Seto thought bitterly to himself as Joey feigned fear, his thoughts so loud they practically echoed through the room.

"Hilarious as ever, mutt." cerulean eyes rolled in their sockets. Before he even had a chance to say another word, the blonde let out a sharp yelp, cause Seto to jump in his skin, shoulders visibly rising quickly as he did so. He also looked over at the blonde's wrist, there was no doubt that Seto had really hurt him - not that he had even meant to that time. "Next time, instead of wasting my time on you, maybe it can be Yugi's problem." the brunette scowled. "It's not even that bad." he lied, completely disregarding Joey's personal space and reaching straight out for his wrist to inspect it. Unfortunately for everyone in involved, Seto had heavy hands, despite how graceful he may have seemed otherwise. Instead of grabbing the wrist itself, he grabbed Joey by the palm (making very, VERY sure he didn't take his hand as if he were really holding it) and jerked his arm towards him, bending it backwards at the same time so he could inspect the back of his wrist. "Does this hurt?" he smirked, knowing fine well the answer, looking up at Joey through his fringe, still smirking.

 **J:** Joey looked up at Kaiba, his words no more sour than usual, but for some reason, made him flinch. The way he had said it made it sound like Joey had been a problem. Whatever had happened that night, Joey was fairly sure it wasn't something he did on purpose, he wasn't even conscious for all of it! So if he had been that much of a nuisance, why had Kaiba even bothered?

The blonde, quite visibly deflated, shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something unintelligible under his breath. That soon changed, when his amber eyes flickered up quickly to see Kaiba reaching for this hand. His body stiffened out of natural response, like most people did when others offered to take a look at their wound.

"Not that bad?" Joey growled, looking down at the red mark and the puffy muscle that was quite clearly angry and inflamed, "Look at it, it's- OUUCH!"

Joey felt himself being pulled forward roughly, as a result, his wrist snapped back, sending spirals of pain shooting up his arm. Snatching his hand back, he lost his balance slightly and felt himself falling towards the brunette. He shot out his good arm to cushion his fall against Kaiba's chest, his eyes locked on the teen's, their faces merely inches apart. Joey could feel the boy's heart hammering in his chest, that same warmth and smell from earlier when they had hugged. He pulled away after a moment and stayed standing, his cheeks having involuntarily turned pink as he stared down at the floor, his mop of yellow hair covering his eyes.

"That hurt, you asshole. And you know it did."

 **K:** Seto felt the boy tensing under his touch but chose to ignore it, putting it down to human response. Honestly, his wrist really was pretty bad. All jokes aside, Seto really did take a good look at it. Before he flipped it backwards his eyes caught sight of very faint finger marks on Joey's wrist. If he had put his hand exactly over where the marks were, it would have lined up perfectly like a puzzle piece. Maybe he just bruised easily?

As Joey yowled again, the brunette couldn't help but flinch slightly, as if it was hurting him too. Subconsciously, he was mirroring the blonde's actions and emotions, something he normally used with business partners when trying to get them to settle into a deal and feel more comfortable, so why on earth was he trying it with Joey Wheeler? As the blonde pulled his wrist back, Seto simply let go, finger tips trailing over the blonde's palm, over his own fingers, too. He felt the sudden weight on his chest, looking down to find Joey's good palm pressed right over where his heart was.

"Uh," the noise just crept out as he looked back up, cerulean meeting amber, gaze locking again. Seto's mouth remained slightly open, face soft, a warmth pulsing on his cheeks again. Involuntarily, his head tipped to the side ever-so-slightly, eyes feeling heavy. Again, it was a natural response when your face is so close to another person's who you may or may not have a slight crush on, but as soon as Joey pulled away, Seto did the same, remaining sat as he looked up to the now taller boy. "I know." he spoke gently, reaching back out for the blonde's good hand, fingers softly wrapping around his wrist as he pulled Joey back down into his seat, reversing the roles and standing up himself. "I'm sorry. Wait here." Normally, when Seto said sorry, he was just saying it to get his own way. It worked in every aspect of his life: work, school, Mokuba, everything. And of course there was no way of Joey knowing if he really meant it, because normally, he wouldn't have. There was probably no way of Seto even knowing if he really meant it, but the tone of his voice said otherwise.

The brunette left the room, walking with no less conviction than normal. There was just something about Seto's walk, the way he carried himself with such confidence all the time. He disappeared through the arches and around the corner, the only sound to be heard was his feet padding across the marble floor of the entrance hall. It wasn't long before he came back, clutching a medium sized box that almost resembled a jewellery box. Seto sat again, this time even closer to the blonde. Placing the box on the table, he lifted the lid, revealing all sorts of different medical padding, disinfectants and even a needle and stitches. Luckily for Joey, they weren't going to be needing them today.

"You're not going to like this, pup." he warned, a cheeky smirk creeping up onto his lips as he pulled out a wad of bandage.

 **J:** Joey's shoulders stiffened when Kaiba spoke, his voice echoing in the large expanse around them, startling him slightly. The way he was reacting now, Joey couldn't understand it. He couldn't help compare his feelings and reactions to Kaiba now to the way he used to act around Mai Valentine. Joey had had a crush on her for years, from the moment he'd first saw her at Duellist Kingdom with her harpies. Whenever he'd see her, he'd act the tough guy, puff out his chest and amp up the bravado. The great thing about Mai was that she saw through it immediately but never pointed it out as a fault. Joey frowned as memories of Battle City came flooding back to him, Mai being in the Shadow Realm, unable to wake up, the hopelessness he felt, the frustration and the suffocating worry. Had Kaiba felt even an ounce of that when he had watched over him?

A hand wrapped around his good wrist, pulling him back a couple steps where he took a seat back on the stool. The blonde looked up at Kaiba, like a small child would, his eyes followed him until he left. Alone, Joey looked up, noticing the chandelier that hung over the kitchen, the glass twinkled, reflecting the light in small rainbows. His gaze then lowered to the large window to his right. It was raining outside, the patter patter of droplets soothing him. The sun was beginning to rise and the fatigue from earlier suddenly washed over him.

When Kaiba returned, Joey was halfway through yawning. He watched as Kaiba shuffled closer to him, their knees touching ever-so-gently. The blonde looked at all the medical utensils and grimaced. He had spent a fair amount of time in A&E, stuff like this didn't bother him at all.

"Do your worst, Kaiba," Joey said with a tired smile, offering the teen his wrist once more.

 **K:** There was something about the way that Joey looked at him that just sent his senses haywire. There was that stupid fucking face he pulled when he was angry where his eyebrows furred and eyes narrowed. The one where he was just LOOKING for trouble, wanting to annoy Seto, the way his amber eyes glimmered playfully. And then there was this look: the puppy dog look. It reminded him so much of Mokuba, especially when he was younger and had hurt himself, looking to Seto for reassurance he was going to be okay. It was THAT look.

As Seto came back into the room, he too was yawning, holding his spare hand over his mouth because, god forbid, it was bad manners not to.

"Don't tempt me." the brunette scoffed, bringing Joey's wrist back into his own hands. He tried to be a lot gentler than before but honestly, it didn't really work, slender digits wrapping around the upper half of the blonde's wrist tightly. As he did so, he glanced up at Joey in a kind of 'this OK?' way, not wanting to verbally announce his concern for the teen's safety. At least he was kind of bothering to ask this time. Swiftly, he began wrapping the bandage around Joey's wrist, starting near the ditch of his elbow, just to make sure it didn't fall down, and began to work his way lower to where the actual damage was. And then he dropped the fucking bandage. The roll dropped straight from his hand, landed on the floor and began unravelling towards the door. Seto sighed deeply, putting his face straight down onto the granite table top and groaning. He knew Joey was probably finding it hilarious. But he was just so damn tired. "Okay, mutt. We're going to have to work together to go get this, seeing as you're halfway wrapped up and I'm halfway asleep."

 **J:** The blonde just smiled, watching silently as Kaiba tried to position his wrist in a comfortable yet efficient way. He winced slightly as the muscles were squeezed, his eyebrows furrowing together in pain. He nodded shortly, teeth biting his bottom lip.

"It's fine," Joey murmured through gritted teeth, the swaths of bandages coming out from the first aid box and being placed right up to the crook of his elbow. Honestly, it wasn't Kaiba's grip or the way he was dressing him that was the issue, it was purely the injury. Nothing was broken, he could still move it, but it would probably need tending to as a doctors or something the following day.

Catching himself yawning again, Joey rubbed at his stinging eyes with the side of his index finger before hearing a gentle thud on the floor below him. He glanced down to see the cylinder of bandages rolling away from them both.

The boy sighed and leant forward in response, cradling his half bandaged hand to his stomach while his free hand stretched out to pick up the bandage. Of course, that's what Kaiba had in mind, only he had moved a millisecond quicker. As a result, Joey's bottom lip/chin connected with the top of Kaiba's forehead, prompting them both to curse in pain.

"This is never gonna work," The blonde said tiredly, rubbing at his lip with his tongue to test for any blood. He watched as Kaiba dragged the bandages towards him, unravelling more in the process and couldn't help but smile for a moment.

"Yeh yeh, I'm tired too, ya know!" Said Joey, stretching out his arm for the final time, his good hand holding the bandages in place at his elbow so they wouldn't come undone.

 **K:** Deciding to finally make a move for it, Seto picked himself back up from the granite table top and began to bend forward, trying to grab the offending roll of bandages before it got too far away. Without even realising that the blonde had the same idea, he arched his back forwards slightly, long, thin arms extending to try and grab the bandage.

"Ah!" he choked as Joey's face came into contact with his forehead. He frowned almost sulkily, leaning back up to a full sitting position, rubbing his forehead with his forehead. "Did you just bite me, Wheeler?" before he had even managed to finish the sentence, the CEO was sniggering a little bit, hoping that the blonde boy would pick up on his play of words, still managing to call him a dog without even having to use the word. This 'insult' was different though, different to the usual insults that he threw around with the blonde boy. This time, it was a genuine joke, one that he actually found pretty funny himself. Without wanting his snigger to turn into a laugh, he composed himself, clearing his throat and then sighing again.

"Right, just hold that and PLEASE, don't bite me again." Seto instructed, pointing to the arm that Joey was already holding. The brunette hopped off of his stool and half jogged, half strode over to where the bandage was, snatching it off the floor and back into his hands. "Let's try this again..." the brunette exhaled, taking his seat again, gently prying the blonde's arm away from his chest and re-tightening the bandage. This time, he was slower, more delicate and therefore slightly gentler with the boy. He finally wrapped the boy's wrist in bandage, extending it down to his palm and wrapping it around his thumb a few times, just to make sure it would stay on. He tied the bandage with a tight knot, quickly glancing up to look at Joey's face as he did so, to make sure he wasn't pulling too hard whilst tying it.

 **J:** Joey narrowed his eyes at Kaiba, not understanding the joke immediately. After a few moments, it clicked and the teen groaned in response to the terrible reference made.

"Kaiba, I am not a dog!" Joey said with a growl, his bottom lip pouting as he watched the brunette chase after the bandages that had made it all the way past the archway and down to the dining room. As the untidy mess of bandages were placed on the counter beside him, Joey blew up air from his teeth, moving his fringe from his eyes.

"Ha ha, very funny," He murmured, deciding to sulk for the duration of the wrapping as he had nothing else better to do. "Whatever."

Placing his index and middle finger to his elbow, Joey held the bandages tightly in place as Kaiba began finishing dressing the injury. It was a slow process, but made infinitely better by the gentle movements the brunette was trying desperately to use.

A few times, Joey found himself staring at Kaiba as he worked, noticing the length of his thick, black lashes and the way his nose curved and then ended sharply. This close, Joey could see tiny scars, perhaps from pimples in his youth, dotting his face here and there but otherwise the boy's skin was pristine. However, Kaiba was not without fault. There were dark bags under his eyes and frown lines on his forehead that seemed to get deeper and deeper every time they met. His face looked weary and exhausted and it was only now Joey stopped to think about how tired Kaiba must have been.

When the knot was made and cerulean eyes met amber, Joey hadn't realised how far forward he had inched as he had watched the teen work. It had been almost mesmerising. Leaning back, Joey glanced to the floor, embarrassed for a moment before standing from the stool. He lifted his hand up and inspected the bandages in the light.

"Not bad, not bad... Could have been a little tighter here, a little tighter there..." He mused, a stupid grin on his face as he flexed his fingers and then winced in response to the pain.

"It still hurts."

Turning his back to the CEO for a moment, Joey whipped out his phone which luckily still had some charge in it and checked the time. It was nearly 7:30am, Yugi would probably be awake. Texting him briefly, he asked the boy to come pick him up at Kaiba's and that'd he explain things on the walk home. He honestly didn't feel strong enough to make it back to his apartment alone but looking at the way Kaiba slowly... very slowly put the bandages back in the box and how he yawned every other few seconds, he deserved some rest. He'd make his way back home without him.

 **K:** Joey was so cute when he sulked. Not when he properly sulked like a little brat but when he acted like this, all huffy and puffy like a little child. The brunette couldn't help but feel the corners of his lips twitch into a small as he continued to focus on bandaging the boy's arm. Seto didn't often have weak spots but apparently, his puppy was one of them, especially when he was tired. He felt the smaller boy's gaze on him the whole time, he knew that Joey was watching him. Why? He had no idea, maybe to make sure that he wasn't going to hurt him even further? The brunette tried not to think about it in too much detail, the smile fading from his face as he continued to concentrate. Seto's skin shuddered slightly as his eyes caught Joey's as he looked up, for some reason, it just shocked him a little bit, even though he knew that all eyes were on him. His face was suddenly so... close? So close that he could feel the blonde's breathe on his face and unusually, it didn't feel unpleasant. The brunette also leant back, stretching his arms over his head and letting out a long, deep yawn, his top lifting up ever-so-slightly to reveal his pale, toned stomach. Returning to his regular sitting position, Seto looked up to Joey who was now standing.

"Not bad? Hm, maybe next time we'll take you to the vet, shall we? I'm sure they know how to bandage paws better than I do." he continued to tease, absolutely no venom in his words this time. There was a silence as Seto watched the blonde boy take out his phone and appear to be texting someone. He shrugged it off - it was none of his business, even though he couldn't help but feel a small fire starting in his belly. Jealousy? "What time is it?" he questioned the blonde, leaning one elbow on the table top. _'I should get Charlie to drive him home...'_ he thought to himself, glancing over to the large bay window, seeing quite clearly that it was definitely now morning. Seto pulled out his own pager, starting to type the message to his driver.


	7. Kaiba's Green Eyed Monster (Enter: Atem)

Here's another round of uploads! Thank you all so much for your views, it means a lot. Hope you're all enjoying it and don't forget to review/subscribe/suggest!

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 **J:** Joey pocketed the phone after sending the text, his eyes running over Kaiba's body as it was revealed from under his turtleneck. His skin was ghostly pale unlike Joey's somewhat tanned-ish skin. The difference between a rich kid who stayed inside all day reading books and a kid from the block playing soccer and kicking cans outside till the sun went down. Despite the difference, Joey found himself staring before quickly looking away and finding a nice spot on the floor to stare at.

"It's 7:30," The blonde said casually with a yawn, feeling the phone vibrate against his backside. He pulled the phone out once more and read the reply from Yugi. Although it wasn't Yugi, it was quite clearly the Pharaoh. It was frustrating having the two share a phone sometimes.

The text read:

 _I hope Kaiba didn't have his dirty way with you last night, Joey. I'll be able to tell. Be there in 15._

 _Atem_

The blonde snorted at the response and quickly typed back something not half as witty, his face contorted in pain as he used the thumb on his injured hand to text back. He huffed under his breath as he shoved the phone into his back pocket once more and looked over at Kaiba who too was texting someone. Moving over to the counter, Joey scooped up another couple sandwiches which he ate in record time, his stomach feeling just a little better.

"I suppose I should be gettin' home now, Kaiba. I'm pretty tired," The blonde said with a yawn, stretching his arms into the air and arching his back towards the floor. It clicked into place, a sigh of contentment escaping the teen's lips. He walked back over to Kaiba and cleared his throat, feeling his cheeks beginning to redden which he consciously tried to fight. Saying thanks came easily to the boy, but not to Kaiba who was usually an unhelpful jerk.

"You've err... Well I mean-thanks and..." Joey was mumbling pretty badly. Why couldn't he just get the words out? Frowning, he exhaled and composed himself, looking up at the brunette with one of his stupid grins.

"Thanks Kaiba."

 **K:** Out of the corner of his eye as he stretched, the CEO noticed the blonde eyeing up his stomach. He didn't mind - he'd worked pretty damn hard to make sure that physically he was healthy. He didn't want to deteriorate to some skinny little twig which, if he didn't regularly make time for working out, would have been inevitable given his terrible diet of complete lack of nutrition. So, Joey looking, was just a compliment that made Seto's ego just that little bit bigger.

"I've been awake for nearly 40 hours..." the brunette said out loud, more to himself than anyone else. It wasn't the first and it certainly wasn't the last, but it still sucked. His voice trailed off as he looked back over to the blonde, watching him text again. Whatever the person on the other end had said, it had obviously tickled Joey. Seto was now a little bit curious, craning his neck slightly, trying to peer up over the boy's hands and into his screen but, of course, he saw nothing.

As the blonde came back over, Seto also stood, now looking down on the boy once more. The height difference wasn't massive, but, it was a hard task to find someone that Seto DIDN'T have to look down on. As Joey began to thank him, the brunette couldn't help but squirm a little bit. Somewhere inside of him, he was kind of hoping for another hug. Because he was so tired, he was starting to doubt that the first hug even happened, he almost felt like he needed confirmation. But of course, he remained cool on the outside.

"Yeah," the brunette nodded, also starting to feel slightly awkward... until the blonde grinned. He felt that smile of his coming on again, but he shook it off. "It's fine, Wheeler. Like I said though, next time, it's the vets who are gonna have to deal with you-"

"Did someone request a ride?" a familiar voice called from arch way. Charlie stood there, quite obviously still exhausted from only having about 3 hours sleep, but a job is a job. Especially a well-paid job. He grinned from ear to ear, staring at Joey.

"I asked Charlie to give you a lift home. Do you want me to walk you to the gates?" Wow. Awkward.

 **J:** _ **'** 40 hours?'_ Joey thought to himself in shock, wondering what sort of mess he'd be in if he hadn't slept or rested for that long. He highly doubt he'd be able to tend to someone's injury... well, he probably couldn't have done that anyway, but still! He was glad he'd asked Atem to come pick him up now instead of having Kaiba stay awake for one second longer.

The smile still on his face, Joey looked up into Kaiba's eyes. Suddenly his body was filled with an electric charge, sending a shudder up and down his spine. He focused in on the feeling, stripping it down and identifying the main emotion- attraction. For some reason, everything about the brunette in front of him was calling to him. His once neat and tidy, but now unruly, thick brown hair, his slender arms, his lips, his narrowed but beautiful cerulean eyes. Why was this happening?!

Physically jumping in place at the sound of Charlie's voice, Joey instinctively took a step back from Kaiba and knocked into the stool he'd been sitting on all night. He grimaced and stooped to the floor, picking it up with his good hand and settling it back into place with an awkward apologetic smile.

"Sorry you er- yeah, sorry," He murmured, glancing first at Charlie then back at Kaiba. Only then did his thoughts start to gather themselves.

"Ah, it's okay, I'm havin' a friend pick me up," Joey said with another apologetic grin at Charlie, assuming he had probably had only a few hours sleep before being called on again by the CEO. The blonde turned to look at Kaiba and chewed on the inside of his cheek before making the decision to head towards the dining room without saying anything. At the end of the hallway, Joey got a text which he checked briefly:

 _Do you think the size of Kaiba's house is him compensating for something?_

Suffocating a laugh, Joey shoved the phone into his coat pocket as he walked to the end of the rooms before arriving at the foyer, a smirk still pasted across his face from Atem's text. He stood at the door, waiting for Kaiba to join him before opening it up.

Atem was stood a few meters from the door, one hand in his pocket, the other scrolling through his phone. He wore black skinny jeans, doc martin boots, a black tank top and black hoodie. His Millennium Puzzle hung round his neck as always and his belt was fastened around his waist, his deck quite clearly hiding in one of the pockets. He looked up as the door was opened and lifted a hand to wave briefly at Kaiba.

"Morning. I'm here to pick up Joey."

 **K:** Seto felt the electricity, too. And the attraction. It was slightly harder to debunk it within his own head, though. He felt that one of the main reasons he was so attracted to the Wheeler boy was because of his need to want to protect him. That doesn't go to say that any kid who's had a rough time comes along, Seto wants to help. It's quite the opposite. But a lot of things that Joey had gone through was the same that Seto and his brother had gone through. Sure, in different ways and to different extremities, but still. Also in a lot of ways, Joey reminded him of Mokuba. Mokuba was the only thing on this living earth that he loved more than himself, more than anything. He loved everything about his brother, from his annoying whinginess down to the way he hugged him. Any traits that he saw in Joey that reminded him of Mokuba just made him feel more connected with the boy. And don't even get him started on Joey's eyes, those gorgeous, amber eyes.

As the stool clattered to the floor, Seto cut out of his thought process, smirking at how embarrassed the blonde was. He and Charlie shared a look before their attention was brought back to the apologising blonde boy.

"Heh, not a problem. Saves me a job." the driver chortled, not bothering to stay any longer as he left the room and disappeared back up the stairs. Seto just stood there, his face suddenly stone as his eyes just followed Joey as he left the room. _'A friend?_ ' he thought bitterly, remaining in the kitchen alone for a moment. He knew, 100%, that it was going to be Yugi. He just knew. And that pissed him off.

With the same fire in his belly as before, Seto span on his heel and followed Joey suit, still saying absolutely nothing. He was obviously furious. There was so many things going through his mind. The main one was just how could Joey be so... nonchalant about it? Unfortunately, Seto's mind was just clockwork revolving around himself. It was obvious that the boy just didn't want to trouble Seto anymore and he obviously was so grateful for what he'd done, but, in the CEO's mind he couldn't help but find him just acting rude, like he wanted to get away. He took it as a personal insult to himself... and that made for a very unhappy Seto. It was like he had started to open up and suddenly, he just didn't care anymore. He didn't even look at the blonde as he opened the door.

Cold cerulean eyes met deep amethyst as the Pharaoh greeted himself.

"Yami." he greeted coldly, eyes narrowed to slits as he kept eye contact. Of COURSE it was Atemu, why did he ever think that Yugi would have come out by himself? The Pharaoh was much bolder, more confident and was definitely not frightened to speak his mind to Seto Kaiba. "I clearly have something of yours." he growled, taking a step to the left, exactly behind Joey and pushing him from the front door step, straight into Atemu. He leant against the door frame, arms crossed tightly over his chest. "Maybe next time don't let your stupid dog wander out alone," he paused, throwing an evil look over to Joey. "If you really ' _cared_ ' about him, you'll make sure he doesn't bother me again. I shouldn't have wasted my time." Seto had already backed up into his home and began closing the door. This time, he spoke to Joey - and only Joey - directly. "'Next time', "he air quoted. "I'll make sure that both of your wrists are broken," and with that, he shut the door, the sound of multiple locks clicking after he had done so.

 **J:** Joey grinned and waved back, immediately sensing the atmosphere in the air. It was thick, heavy and awkward and Joey found himself inching further and further away from Kaiba just to escape the impending gloom that was swallowing him up like a dark, rain cloud. He could tell from the Pharaoh's expression that he wasn't going to take any crap from the brunette and that just made things all the more awkward.

Atem nodded his head at Kaiba, all trace of a smile on his lips fading. He glanced over at the blonde, a 'did he make you bottom?' question pasted over his face in the form of a raised eyebrow and a ghost of a smirk. The blonde shrugged in response, seeing Kaiba move swiftly from his right to behind him. All too suddenly, Joey found himself toppling forwards over the threshold of the mansion's door, the pavement looming closer and closer to his face. He tripped and landed in Atem's arms who promptly caught the taller teen with ease.

Atem narrowed his amethyst eyes angrily at Kaiba, releasing the blonde and allowing him to stand up straight next to him.

"Joey is not a dog, Kaiba. Nor is he my property or anyone else's for that matter. Whatever happened between you two is not my business but he's my best friend," The Pharaoh glanced over at the blonde who was fixated on Kaiba only. It was an usual expression, one Atem had not seen on Joey before. It made him frown, a small realisation washing over him.

The door slammed in their faces, loudly, prompting a group of birds to fly high into the orange sky, disturbed from their nesting in a near-by tree. They chirped excitedly, wings flapping in the otherwise silent early morning. The only other sound that could be heard was the ringing of his ears as the blonde stared at the closed door in front of him. After a few more moments of silence, Joey lowered his head, his blonde locks covering most of his face.

"Come on, Pharaoh. Let's get outta here."


	8. Distance makes the Heart Grow Fonder

**J:** The pair walked together in silence, Atem analysing his friend subtly from the corner of his eye. The spirit was sharp, not much got past him, particularly with Joey who was practically an open book when it came to emotions anyway. They crossed a road at the end of Kaiba's drive and continued further down, past a row of large houses. Each garden had its own sakura tree. The cherry blossoms were in bloom and thousands of petals floated around in the air, searching for somewhere safe to land. A couple landed on Joey's shoulders but he didn't seem to notice.

Finally the Pharaoh spoke, putting out a hand to stop the blonde from walking any further.

"Joey. Let me buy you breakfast."

The boy looked up from his slump into Atem's eyes, his own a little red and sporting bags. He nodded silently before carrying on, turning left to take them further into the city.

 **K:** Seto was still furious. Absolutely seething. Every step he took got heavier, every breath was louder. He was definitely throwing a tantrum but at this point, he couldn't care less. He veered off back into the kitchen and sat straight down on exactly the same seat that Joey was sat on. Immediately he stood up and began to pace the kitchen, going from end to end, hands firmly in his pockets as he did so.

After a few minutes of pacing, trying to keep his anger in, the brunette finally began to calm down. He calmed down enough to be able to pour himself a glass of water, downing the whole thing in one.

"Fucking Yami." he snarled to himself, placing the glass down by the sink with such force the bottom of it cracked - not that he cared. Honestly, the Pharaoh had blind-sided him. He knew that it was going to be Yugi he saw when he opened the door, but, for some reason he just didn't expect to come face to face with Atemu. It was the look in his eyes, the way he spoke. It just filled him with rage. Suddenly, he was angry again. Instead of pacing the kitchen, he decided to just go to his bedroom and get some fucking sleep.

His feet pounded on the first stairwell as he jogged up them, eyes still narrowed. _'Was I too harsh on him?_ ' he thought to himself, clearing the hallway and then progressing up ANOTHER set of stairs. He couldn't help but think of the way that Joey looked when he said that. But then, the Pharaoh's words rang in his ears _. "Nor is he my property or anyone else's for that matter."_ That sentence just boiled Seto's blood. He wanted Joey to be his. HIS property, all his, no one else's. Especially not some un-dead Pharaoh who already had business with his Hikari.

He flung the door open to his bedroom, allowing the darkness to swallow him as he entered. Even though it was light outside by this point, his thick, dark blue velvet curtains were still closed from the last time he was in his room, shrouding him in complete darkness. Like pretty much everywhere else in the house, the room was mainly white but this time, had blue accents. They ranged from dark to light, obviously to compliment his love for his Blue Eyes White Dragon. He even had a small plush of the Duel Monster on the shelf above his computer desk... no shame. He threw himself onto his king sized bed, sprawling out as much as he possibly could, laying face up. All he could think about was Joey Wheeler and his stupid fucking face. And of course, Atemu, and how much he hated him.

"Seto...?" he heard a voice call meekly, the door squeaking open just slightly. It was Mokuba. "Are you awake?" the younger of the Kaiba brothers whispered.

"Come here." Seto said simply, holding his arms right out for his younger brother. Without any hesitation, Mokuba bounded from the door and landed right in his brothers arms, giving him a big 'welcome home' hug. Suddenly, everything felt OK again.

 **J:** Joey and Atem had gone to the closest breakfast joint they could find. He was served eggs, sausages, an ongoing flood of toast and butter and a strawberry milkshake. The pharaoh opted for a simple cheese omelette and cup of coffee. They ate and then talked for hours, Joey filling him in on everything; from the point he left Yugi at school to the moment he had been thrown out the door at Kaiba's. He spared no details, the words sort of tumbling out without much control. He omitted the parts including any physical contact (the hug and the electricity he felt whenever in close proximity to the brunette) but everything else was true down to every last word. Atem had sat their patiently, listening to it all, only reacting when something intrigued or surprised him with a guttural, 'I see' or 'Yes.. Go on.'

At about 10:15 ish, the pair decided to go their separate ways. Atem rested his hand on Joey's shoulder and gave it a small squeeze, flashing the boy one of his reassuring smiles.

"Don't worry about him, Joey."

The blonde smiled back and waved the Pharaoh off. As soon as he had disappeared round the corner, Joey felt his shoulders slump. He stared down at his shoes, anger previously hidden now started to bubble up inside of him. Anger and betrayal and confusion. Completely forgetting about his already injured wrist, Joey span on the spot, bringing his arm back, clenched fist ready to punch at the wall in front of him with full force. He stopped his knuckles from bruising the brick wall just in time, his chest heaving up and down as he lowered his head and crumpled into a defeated heap on the floor.

 **{TIME SKIP: 1 WEEK- FRIDAY AFTERNOON- 3:30PM}**

Joey had gone home that morning and slept. He woke up three times but forced himself to go back to sleep and rest. Every time he had sat up, Kaiba's stupid face had come to mind. He slept through most of Sunday, only waking up when his Dad had stormed into his room, throwing some object at him and yelling at the boy to "Wake the fuck up and go buy groceries. And beer!"

The week had gone smoothly. Kaiba wasn't at school, which was hardly surprising. He was in his senior year at high school at 18, close to graduating. He would only need to turn up for the exams though as apparently he was above and beyond public school education. That suited Joey just fine, it gave him a chance to forget about that Friday with the brunette and focus on his friends instead. Bakura had not been in at the beginning of the week but had made an appearance on Thursday. He'd taken Joey aside and apologised and bowed so much that Joey had to stop him with a gentle ruffling of his hair. It was a little weird to think that an evil spirit possessed him but... they were friends. It didn't change that fact. Atem had also quite clearly filled Yugi in on everything he had told him, which Joey didn't mind. The two were one of a kind, but they both had very different ways of dealing with things and advice to give. No one else knew what had happened though, Joey had just made up some excuse about falling over and spraining his wrist.

It was Friday afternoon, the bell to signal the end of the school day had just rung.

"What are you guys doing this weekend?" Tea asked happily, slipping on her outdoor shoes that she had collected from her locker. Tristan stood by the doors, bag swung over his shoulder, one foot rested up against the wall, a hand shoved in his pocket.

Joey was fixing his shoe and shrugged, looking over at Yugi who smiled back at him.

"We should do something together," The young, pink-haired boy said suddenly as they all moved to walk out of the doors and head down the hill towards the school gates.

"Let's go to Grandpa's store and buy some new cards," Joey suggested which was met with a groan from Tea who shook her head, her blue eyes scowling at the three boys beside her.

"No-no-no! Please, no duel monsters this time. Let's do something normal, something fun, like the arcade?"

Yugi grinned, nodding. "That's a great idea, Tea. Guys?"

Tristan, who was now walking stride for stride with Joey out of habit, shrugged.

"Sure, whatever you want."

Joey stuck out his hand and shoved the boy's arm, knocking him off balance.

"HEY! Watch it!"

The blonde boy grinned, turning his focus back to the road ahead but something made him freeze in his place. A familiar face was waiting for him at the gates.

 _'Shit...'_

 **K:** A week. A whole week had passed. Not that Seto even really had any time to dwell on it too much. With term coming close to an end he had a lot of exams coming up... as well as a lot of important business meetings. It seemed never ending: business meeting, exam. Exam, business meeting. They all started to blend into one come Friday. In a way, he was glad for it. He knew if he didn't have anything scheduled, nothing to do, he would have just sat and festered, thinking about Joey Wheeler as opposed to working and thinking about Joey Wheeler. At least he had something to keep his mind off of it.

In all honesty, the teen didn't really need to revise for his exams. One of the only reasons he was still IN education was so he could set a good example for his little brother. He didn't need it, he was already successful, already had money. Of course, Mokuba one day would grow into it too, adopting his brother's empire but... in the meantime, he was still a 13 year old boy who needed routine and structure. And Seto was willing to do that.

Seto hadn't been in school since the Tuesday, when he had his second to last exam. It went fine, no problems, he was sure he aced it. On the Wednesday, he had a late morning meeting and actually had nothing of major importance scheduled until the following Saturday. Over the weekend, he was playing host to a business partner and, also, an ex-lover. Strictly business, of course. The spark between Seto and his ex was long gone, nothing left but mere business opportunities and the space to be civil here and there. He didn't want to, but, he had to. If anything, the whole situation was forcing the CEO to think of Joey Wheeler just that little bit more - why couldn't it be him staying the weekend? Well. He could try change that.

"I'll be back later tonight, Mokuba. Don't be surprised if I have company." he cooed to his younger brother, running his hand through the boy's soft, raven black hair. The boy merely grinned and gave him a thumbs up, returning back to watching something on the TV. The brunette pulled on his signature blue trench coat and left the home.

He had decided to walk this time, letting the crisp air compose him slightly as he did so. He had planned it out so meticulously over the course of the past couple of days. It was due time to apologise to Joey and explain himself a little better and, more than anything else, he just wanted to see his face again. An apology dinner. Who didn't fall for that? Hours before he had arranged a booking for the best restaurant in town - an Italian joint in the centre of Domino City. It was notoriously hard to get a booking, but, of course: it was Seto Kaiba. They practically invited him in.

Cool, calm and collected he waited outside of the familiar school gates. Students pooled outside of the main entrance as the bell rang, girls and boys glancing strangely at Seto Kaiba as they walked past. He ignored them all. He only had eyes for one... and there he was. He spotted Joey a mile off, his golden hair a straight up giveaway. And of course he was with his friends; not that Seto cared. Cerulean locked with amber even from yards away, Seto knew he had seen him. As the group approached, Seto continued to ignore the rest of the group, especially Atemu, feeling his skin crawling at the mere sight of the Pharaoh.

"We need to talk." he said simply to the blonde boy, pushing himself away from the gates that he was leaning on. "Do you like Italian food?"

 **J:** Joey stood rooted to the spot, his heart suddenly skipping a beat and hammering painfully against his chest.

"Joey? Hellooo? Earth to Joey?" Tristan was leaning into his friend, waving a hand in front of his face in an attempt to get him to focus.

Yugi looked at the blonde's face and analysed the situation. He looked up to see Kaiba standing at the gates, his eyes fixated on Joey. Atem was at home which was probably good. The Pharaoh and Kaiba didn't make for a good mix.

"Joey," Yugi mumbled, tugging at the boy's sleeve, bringing him out of his daze.

"Hm?" Joey blinked, feeling his eyes water slightly. "What is it, Yug?"

The pink-haired boy gave his friend a smile with a slight roll of his large, purple eyes.

"Go ahead. You guys probably need to talk."

At this point, Tea and Tristan had caught on, both as confused as each other. The girl folded her arms over her chest and rose an eyebrow.

"Why is Kaiba here?" She said with a pout, looking down at Yugi for him to answer her.

Joey, at this point, had gone on ahead; bag slung over his shoulder. He was trying to act cool, but the closer to Seto he got, the more nervous he felt. Finally he was stood in front of the taller teen, a physical distance between the two that said he was still pissed off. He shrugged at Kaiba's question, looking down at the floor as he spoke.

"It's okay, I guess."

Yugi held out his hands to stop both Tea and Tristan interrupting, turning his back to Joey and murmuring quietly to the pair, explaining VERY briefly the situation.

"So those two hung out last weekend? Weird..." Tea commented, her eyes now focused on the two ahead of them.

Yugi shrugged and smiled, "Maybe. I think they like each other more than either of them would ever admit though."

 **K:** "Good." Seto said simply, sensing the other teen's reluctance. Because of the time that had passed, the brunette had forgotten just how cruel he had been to the blonde and honestly, he probably never really accepted it in the first place anyway. Seto was the type to think just because HE had forgotten about a situation, everyone else would have to. Only in an ideal world. He glanced up to Joey's friends who were now crowded around each other, all looking as confused as the other - apart from Yugi. Quite obviously, the boy's lover had filled him in on the situation. Seto gave the spiky haired boy a nod of acknowledgment as, in a little way, he did harbour a small fleck of respect for the boy. Without saying anything else, Seto held his arm out, gesturing at the limo that was pulling around the corner in quite spectacular timing. "Come on." he said gently, his arm still out and behind the boy. Seto took a step forward, forcing the blonde to come with him, his arm almost touching the boy. In anyone had just taken a quick glance, it would have looked like Seto had his arms around him.

He opened the door for Joey first, allowing the blonde to get in before he did. Seto didn't even bother looking back at the group of teens watching out for their friend, he just got straight in, feelings their eyes burning holes through him. The limo door shut automatically, blinding him and the blonde boy from the gaggle's vision.

"Hey again, blondie." Charlie teased from the front seat, his voice muffled by the thick layer of misted glass. The limo kick started and they began to drive slowly, but with purpose.

Seto sat exactly in the curve of the back seat so he was facing Joey directly, but was almost sat next to him. He stretched his arm out over the back of the leather seat and again, if Joey was any closer, he would have had his arm around the back of Joey's seat, too. The brunette said nothing, just looked at Joey with a certain expectancy, waiting for the blonde boy to speak first so he knew how to set the tone and pace of this evening.

 **J:** "Those two? Like each other?" Tea scoffed, shaking her head once more so that the evening sunlight reflected off her thin brown locks.

"Yeah Yugi, they hate each other. It's like lookin' at a cat and dog!" Tristan chipped in, feeling like he knew what he was talking about before turning to look over at Joey who was hopefully going to confirm what he'd just said.

Yugi looked up at the two and caught Kaiba's gaze. He nodded back solemnly, feeling the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle become somewhat agitated. The boy took Tea and Tristan by the hand and lead them away from Joey and Seto.

"Let's leave them alone for a bit. Who wants pizza?"


	9. Run, Joey, Run

**J:** Joey was sceptical. This could all be a part of Kaiba's plan to humiliate him or hurt him further. If he was honest with himself, he still hadn't forgiven the brunette what he had done or said. He'd threaten to break his wrists... Who does that? Whatever the case may be, Joey knew he had buried his feelings towards Kaiba deep down for the week, ignoring the thought of the brunette whenever he popped into his mind. He'd distracted himself with duel monsters, house work, friends, tv- anything that would stop him thinking about Kaiba and the horrible things he'd said.

The blonde stared at the limo that had pulled up to the pavement, the gaggle of school kids all staring at the car. One kid, a bug-eyed freak with a bowl cut and glasses actually went up to the limo to touch it, but before his finger could smear the polished finish, Charlie had loudly and abruptly honked the horn. The kid was shocked and stumbled back onto his behind, tripping on the sidewalk, an eruption of laughter coming from all the students who had seen it.

"Kaiba, look, I don't think-" The blonde begun but soon felt himself getting ushered into the backseat without much of a choice, the distraction of the kid falling over being the perfect time for the two to disappear into the car together. Sliding over the leather seats and pushing himself as far into the corner as physically possible, Joey grunted at the acknowledgment from the driver before putting on his seatbelt and staring to his right and out of the window. He watched as more cherry blossom trees passed and how apartment blocks began to be replaced by high office sky rises and restaurants and huge TV screens. He listened to the quiet murmur of the radio from the front and his own and Kaiba's breathing. The teen could feel the cold stare boring into the back of his head but refused to give the brunette the satisfaction of seeing his face. Instead, he lifted his elbow to the car door where the window began and cupped his cheek in his palm, feeling more comfortable. If Kaiba wanted to drag him into his limo and take him to some fancy restaurant for dinner, that was his problem, Joey never said he would come happily.

 **K:** So. That was the pace and tone of the evening then: a very pissed off puppy dog. It was fair enough, Seto deserved it, even though he couldn't quite come round to that thinking in his own mind. Slightly irritated at the blonde's lack of care for his obvious effort, Seto shifted in his seat, pulling his arm back and crossed his arms over his chest. There was that invite gone. Even Charlie pulled a face of _'good luck'_ in the rear mirror and continued driving.

"What happened the other morning..." he started, cerulean gaze also drifting to watch out of the same window that Joey was looking at. He didn't even know how to finish the sentence, didn't know where to take it. 'OH SORRY I THREATENED TO CRIPPLE YOU JOEY AND WAS A TOTAL DOUCHE TO YOUR FRIEND' wasn't very Seto Kaiba. He sighed, slumping back further into the leather seat, the material squeaking against the opposing material of his trench coat. He nibbled at the inside of his cheeks as he fiddled with the silver ring on his thumb: a gift from an old friend he couldn't bear to just chuck away. "What I said... the way it came across..." the CEO was trying to arrange his words in a way that didn't obviously make it look like he was trying to apologise, but also didn't just make him look like more of a dick. It came out wrong," He finished, gaze snapping back onto the blonde who still wasn't looking at him. He felt the fire in his belly again but this time for different reasons - had he really upset Joey that much?

 **J:** Joey continued to stare at the window, stubborn as ever. Kaiba didn't deserve his attention, he didn't deserve anything. Sure, he'd been good and looked after him after the stuff with Bakura but why had he acted like such a jerk around Atem? Did he really hate him that much?

The blonde sighed heavily, his breath making a small patch of condensation on the window. He shut his eyes and started thinking back to that Friday night... a lot of it had actually been... pretty nice. The food, the talking, finding his Red Eyes, the hug, the bandaging of his hand... the thought of his wrist pulled him back into reality, the same anger that had filled him the entire week now reappearing on the surface. Kaiba had done that to him, even if it wasn't exactly him at the time but Bakura possessing him. The teen shivered at the thought of some dirty, ancient spirit inside his body. He didn't have any memories of the Shadow Realm and the uneasy feeling he'd felt back in Kaiba's spare room had finally gone, but the thought was still there.

Joey listened to Seto's pathetic attempt at an apology and turned his head to look at the back of the driver's seat, his neck beginning to ache from having it turned at such a right angle for so long.

"You think that's good enough, Kaiba?" Joey said quietly as luckily, right on cue, Charlie had pulled over into a parking lane by the sidewalk. To their right was an entrance and a large sign next to it, telling customers on which floor was each restaurant. Not waiting for the brunette or Charlie to get his door, Joey clambered out the back seat and slammed the car door a little too harshly. He then walked on ahead through the door to an elevator. He pressed the button for up, noticing that the Italian restaurant was on the top floor- of course, the higher up, the fancier and expensive places were. Shoving his hands into his pockets, Joey felt Kaiba next to him and prepared himself for an awkward elevator journey up to the 14th floor. The doors pinged after what seemed a life time and Joey lead them in, pressing the button they needed while watching as the doors closed, sealing them in.

 **K:** "Wheeler, if I thought THAT was good enough, I wouldn't have bothered booking the damn restaurant." he warned, tone beginning to get dangerously low. Even though Joey had every right to be furious with him, it didn't mean that Seto could tolerate it for much longer... but he was trying. Even if it wasn't obvious to J: he really, really was.

The corners of his lips tugged downwards into an irritated frown as the boy let himself out of the vehicle. _'Right...'_ he thought to himself, scooting along the leather seats and climbing out of the same door that Joey had left through, almost bumping into Charlie on his way out. The driver shrugged, looking back over to Joey as he pressed the buttons on the elevators, not even bothering to wait for the CEO.

"Tough luck, Kaiba. It better be some damn tasty food is all I'm gonna say." he chuckled, giving his employer a rough pat on the back before getting back into the driver's seat. "Page me when you want me." and with that, the limousine took over around the corner. Seto was all alone in this. He rolled his eyes, slicking back a few loose hairs from his face before placing his hands in the pockets of his black slacks and following after Joey.

As the elevator doors closed, the brunette could feel the other boy's tension. Heck, he was probably even a little bit tense too, even if he didn't want to admit it. Remaining silent, he started to slip his trench coat off, ready to hand to the door attendant to hang up, regardless of if that was her job or not. For the price he paid for his reservation, he quite frankly didn't give a damn. Unlike the casual wear he had on last time he had seen the Wheeler boy, he was now wearing a tight fitting white shirt, buttoned up all the way to his top. It framed his physique perfectly. He looked over to the elevator's floor timer, seeing they had only just reached the 4th floor. 10 more to go. Seto looked back down to the smaller boy who was still aggressively avoiding eye contact.

"Are you just going to ignore me the whole evening, or...?"

 **J:** Joey was wrong. Way wrong. THIS was the most tense atmosphere he'd ever felt. Forget what he felt when he'd opened the door at Kaiba's to reveal Atem. No, this was way worse. This made the blonde physically squirm in his place, fidgeting the only way he could try to ignore the suffocating awkwardness that hung in the confined space. Annoyingly so, because of the space in which they were in, Joey could smell Kaiba's intoxicating scent. Again, it was the smell of fresh linen and that cologne he often wore and perhaps... mint? Maybe he'd been chewing on gum recently. Either way, it was a heady aroma and Joey had to force himself not to get sucked into it.

Glancing over at the buttons, only the seventh button had lit up, the elevator being frustratingly slow. He exhaled and leant his elbows back behind him to lean on a railing, his eyes fixed on the doors ahead of. Kaiba's words did not come as a surprise to the blonde, he knew he would never going to get a proper apology out of the brunette but the least he was expecting was an explanation. Why did he suddenly act the way he did and say the things he did? It could be a simple answer like _, 'I just really hate Yugi, so sorry,_ ' and that would be that. Joey wouldn't be ecstatic but at least he'd be able to make steps towards forgiving the teen. But no, the anger and betrayal was still there so instead of answering him normally like anyone else would, Joey raised the hand that had recently been in bandages and brought up his middle finger. He almost immediately regretted his decision but a part of him felt exhilarated, like he'd just told his Dad to go fuck himself or told a teacher they were more brainless than a sea slug.

The doors pinged open and Joey half jogged, half sped-walk through into the foyer of the restaurant, a pretty blonde woman waiting to seat them. Joey waited for Kaiba to give his name, his teeth biting down on his bottom lip in some sort of apprehension. He didn't know how Kaiba was going to react to his middle finger... but he'd soon find out once they sat down to dinner. The blonde glanced around at the clientele of the restaurant and noticed everyone was dressed formally or at least smartly. He glanced down at his school uniform and pulled a face, remembering Kaiba's crisp, white shirt and smooth attire. He probably looked like a mutt being entered into a pedigree show but a part of him didn't really care.

 **K:** Seto had made a point to make sure that he looked - and smelt - presentable. Not just for Joey, of course not, but just to make a show out of his big date to everyone at the restaurant. Seto's name was practically household, everyone in Domino City knew who he was right down to the staff who worked there to the diners. He donned his usual after shave, a strong yet crisp smell, a smell that meant business and was so typically Seto Kaiba. He too had made sure to mouth wash just before leaving to pick up his unsuspecting dinner guest and also brought along a few packs of gum. Even Seto could smell himself in the elevator... so that was saying something.

The brunette had actually looked away from the blonde, tired of waiting for him to answer when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. The middle finger. Great. Seto wasn't sure if he should have been absolutely furious or buckled over with laughter - Joey really was a pissed off little puppy this evening. Before he even had a chance to react, the elevator doors open and his date had practically flung himself from the elevator shaft _. 'Wise thinking, mutt._ ' Seto thought to himself as he also stepped out, shrugging his shoulders back into his shirt to make sure it wasn't crumpled at the front. He would deal with how poorly his mutt had behaved later. Now, he had to put on a show.

As he made his way down the foyer, he could already sense people's eyes on him. In all honesty, it wasn't a rarity for Seto to dine in such top class places so it wasn't necessarily shock from the diners, it was more just _'oh fuck look, it's him'_ type thing. The CEO finally reached Joey, cerulean eyes sending daggers into his back. If the blonde thought THAT was uncomfortable... well then. Without saying a single word, he snaked his arm around the boy's hip, pulling him close to his body, knowing that even someone like Joey wouldn't act out in a place like this. The blonde waitress cooed at them sweetly, clutching two menus in her hands as she leant forward and bowed.

"Mr. Kaiba," she greeted, then turning her attention to Joey. "Mr. Wheeler." she added, standing to her full height. "It's so nice to have the both of you. Please, follow me to your table. Oh! And let me take that coat of yours." she beaconed to Seto's free arm, another woman scuttling in from the side and taking it away from him.

All eyes were on the two boys as Seto led them through the restaurant, following the waitress. He made sure to keep the boy close to his hip, his thin but muscular arm flexing around the boy's body easily. He didn't care what people thought about his relationship status - but he knew that Joey probably would.

"Here you go," the waitress gestured towards a two person table secluded by a large, open window, the sun starting to set over the horizon. They, of course, had the best seats in the house. "Let me know when you're ready to order." She bowed again and turned on her heel, power walking off, getting obvious shudders from Seto's steely gaze. Once she had left, his gaze averted to the boy who was still held close to him. He finally released the boy from his misery, taking a step towards a chair and pulling out for Joey. A gentleman as always. He didn't say anything, just gestured with a nod for the blonde boy to take the seat.

 **J:** Joey could feel the daggers boring into the back of his skull and couldn't work out whether he should be shaking in fear or laughing from the thrill of pissing Kaiba off. He settled for both and when gestured to by another pristine blond to take his coat, managed to slip the brunette a smug smile. He shook his head at the offer of handing over his blue jacket, the crappy, thin thing the school made him wear. Underneath he wore only a white t-shirt and he couldn't promise himself there wouldn't be a stain lurking somewhere in the folds of the material or too many creases to count. Thinking it was safer to keep the jacket on, Joey thanked the woman who nodded and tottered off, her behind swaying deeply from side to side as she moved over to the left to see to a table.

Momentarily distracted by the hostess' peachy behind, Joey didn't sense the movement of Kaiba to his side. It was only when he felt a slim but firm arm around his waist did he flinch, his head turning stiffly to look up at the brunette.

 _'What. The. HELL are you doing, Kaiba...?!'_ Joey practically screamed in his head, his cheeks flushing a dark shade of red, steam hypothetically blowing from his ears.

So, this had been Kaiba's reaction. He would rather have been slapped around the face.

The pair walked together to their secluded table, with every step, Joey retreating further and further into himself as tens of pairs of eyes were locked firmly on them.

When the woman left, he was finally released from his public display of affection prison and allowed himself to take the seat Kaiba had pulled out for him. He waited for the sharp brunette to be sitting in front of him before he narrowed his amber eyes accusingly at the teen.

"Well played, Kaiba."

 **K:** After Joey had accepted his offer of the seat, Seto also went and took his, sitting directly opposite the blonde. He loved it. He loved the whole thing. Even just the way that the other teen had reacted was perfect to him, a hint of crimson still staining the other boy's cheeks. He loved the effect that he had on the boy. As cerulean clashed with amber, he couldn't help but smirk, flicking those same loose strands of hair out of his face with a tilt of his head.

"And not so well played to you." he tutted, looking down and opening one of the menus that their waitress had brought over. Seto practically knew what he was going to order anyway but thought he'd amuse the blonde and look through the menu. Unfortunately for everyone around him, the CEO was the type who stuck to what he knew and kept it that way.

Seto soon grew bored of scanning the menu that he already knew from back to front and looked back up to his date, wondering if he was still as flustered as he was a couple of minutes ago. He propped his elbows up on the table and then rested his chin on the backs of his hands, gaze never leaving the other boy.

"I'm sorry, okay." he said simply, cerulean eyes glistening like pools of water as the last rays of sun shone off the two teens. "I shouldn't have said what I said. Not like that. Now can we just enjoy another evening together?" Seto spoke sincerely, slowly, softly. This was the best he could do.

 **J:** Joey glanced out at the huge window to his right, his eyebrows raising in appreciation. The view was beautiful. You could see nearly all of Domino City and with the sun setting, the sky had turned pink and orange and yellow while the buildings were slowly consumed by a peaceful blue darkness. It was captivating and the blonde soon found himself forgetting about Kaiba and the PDA and dinner and just enjoyed looking out of the window. It was only when the brunette spoke did Joey snap out of his daze, unaware of how long he'd been ignoring the teen. He turned his head back to look at Kaiba, his cheeks still flushed a little from earlier. His eyes were focused on the array of cutlery resting on each side of his plate but soon darted up to gaze into the cerulean orbs.

Had Kaiba just... apologised?

Had Kaiba just apologised and actually... meant it?

Joey must have looked like an idiot as he sat back and slumped in his seat, his mouth agape for quite a few seconds before his brain told him to shut it. Never, EVER, had he ever heard Seto apologise. Not even for worse things than threatening to break some bones, not even when his crazy, psychotic second brother trapped him and Yugi in a virtual reality world to duel or die or not even when he'd invited the batshit crazy Marik onto his blimp for Battle City who consequently sent all his friends to the Shadow Realm- not even those really serious times did even a hint of remorse come from the teen; but here he was now, sitting in front of Joey, an expression on his face that looked almost pained, like he was willing the apology to be enough.

"Well, you could have taken me to a nicer restaurant, ya know. I can't even see my house from here," Joey sniffed with a shrug before glancing back at the brunette and smiling.

"Apology accepted, Kaiba," The blonde said as he stretched out his hand into the middle of the table for the brunette to shake.

 **K:** Noticing that the blonde was completely consumed in looking at the skyline, Seto also did the same, eyes tracing the same path that Joey's was on and settling on the gorgeous view. He had to admit, this one was of the best perks of being rich. Not pushing people around, not having people want to be your friend, it was priceless things like this that unfortunately, the CEO was only able to access through his wealth. Shame, really.

The fact that Joey still hadn't replied made the brunette shift in his seat a little bit, tearing himself way from the beautiful sunset to look back into eyes that, quite frankly in his opinion, were better than a sunset anyway. Seto himself was kind of taken back by how shocked Joey looked. Was it something he said? Why was he looking like that? _'What's with his face?'_ he thought blankly to himself, just staring at the boy who was staring straight back at him. It was easy for Seto to forget how other people perceived him. Well, no, it wasn't. Because he spent all of his time and effort making SURE people saw him the way he wanted to, but, just because it was how he wanted them to see him, didn't necessarily mean that's how he was. Heck, he was constantly apologising to Mokuba, be it for accidentally sitting on his duel cards and bending them to after they had big, explosive arguments. Seto was human too even if he didn't want to show it.

"Eh, you win some, you lose some." the brunette shrugged, flashing Joey a mischievous half smile, half smirk. As the blonde stretched his hand out, Seto did the same, his chest pressing against the table slightly to make up for the space between them. He reached out to take the boys hand, finger tips almost touching and then suddenly, he stopped, hand turning upside down to reveal a middle finger. "And that's for before." he winked, long eyelashes fluttering over his glistening cerulean eyes before seriously taking the boys hand and instead of shaking it, he simply brought it back down to the table, holding it with his own, that same smile/smirk on his face. Joey Wheeler was going to be his, he was going to make sure of it.


	10. First Name Terms

**J:** Joey expected a handshake, a firm one, perhaps a bending of his wrist so the recently healed muscles burned and tore in pain- a sign of dominance, Kaiba quite clearly being the alpha male between the two. The blonde was anticipating this so much that his body had tensed in response, his shoulders rigid and his posture shrunk back in apprehension.

But instead of the handshake, he was given the middle finger. A wide smile spread across Joey's face, a laugh escaping his lips. He'd never seen a side to Kaiba like this before- playful, teasing, funny. It was like he'd finally started to get to know the real him, a person he'd known for years but only recently gotten to be friends with. If only Kaiba could be like this more often instead of being cold and rude to everyone he looked down on... He'd have a lot more friends.

This thought crossed Joey's mind only briefly as suddenly he felt contact with his hand.

"Couldn't resist the handshake, huh, Kaiba-" Joey paused, his eyes blinking as he watched his hand being taken in the brunette's, gripped tightly but then brought down to the table. A couple seconds passed and Kaiba hadn't let go. Joey lifted his amber eyes to cerulean and suddenly felt his heart skip a beat. That look. Those lips turned up into a knowing smile and those eyes... They were staring right at him, the gaze so intense that Joey couldn't help but notice his breathing become heavier and an unusual shudder run through his body. Instinctively, he squeezed Kaiba's hand tenderly, his thumb brushing over the marble white skin for only a second before pulling away. The blonde cleared his throat, retreating as far into his chair as possible before snatching up the menu and burying his head as far as physically possible into its contents to avoid revealing to Kaiba his flushed cheeks.

"Ah yes, this looks good, great, yes. I'll have whatever he's havin'," The boy mumbled more to himself than anyone else, his eyes peeking out over the top of the menu to peer over at Kaiba to catch a glimpse of his smile.

 **K:** Seto Kaiba was definitely on an all-time-high charm offensive tonight: and it seemed to be working. Very few people ever managed to get this close to Seto, most of the time they either just got tired of him being a complete asshole or he himself was the one to cut it off. But there was something about the blonde boy, who currently still held his hand in Seto's, that he couldn't shake off. From the moment he saw the boy he felt an immediate attraction, be it his thick, messy hair or brilliant amber eyes. Everything about him was intoxicating and boy, did he know it now. Thank god he bumped into him that night.

Maintaining his cool outer exterior, he continued to watch Joey, keen to see how his reaction was. He was expecting maybe some blushing, fidgeting and maybe even some cursing. And yet: nothing. Everything around them dimmed for a moment, their breathing catching in sync, the few moments passing feeling like hours. He could stay here like this, happily, for the rest of the evening. Cerulean eyes widened slightly as he felt the other boy squeezing his hand in return, his thumb oh-so-tenderly running over the back of his own hand. It felt nice. Their physical contact was soon broken and quickly enough, Joey had retreated back into himself, practically using the menu as a barrier. But Seto didn't mind. He leant back in his chair, one arm splayed out over the back of it whilst he held his own menu in the other. Eventually, he too pulled his gaze away from the boy to double check what he wanted. As he looked back up, their eyes met again, Seto raising an eyebrow playfully at the suddenly coy blonde.

"You know what you want to eat yet, pup?" his words melted off the tip of his tongue as he tipped his head back slightly to rid his eyes of loose strands of hair. As if on cue, their waitress came back around the corner, taking the two small steps onto the platform that their table was at. She beamed at the two, holding a small notepad and pen in her hands.

"Ready to order?"

"You okay or do you want me to order for you?" the brunette asked his pup, leaning forward in his seat again, placing his menu down in front of him on the table. His question came out slightly more dominating/demeaning than he meant it to, but he was sure Joey wouldn't care at this point. Or even more so: maybe he liked it.

 **J:** Joey narrowed his eyes at Kaiba, giving him a false look of irritation before a grin found its way onto his face again. He quickly ducked back under the cover of the menu and began reading the items. Honestly, he couldn't pronounce most of them let alone understand what they actually were. The entire menu was in Italian. He found what looked like pizzas, something he knew he enjoyed and tried making out some of the words.

 _'Anchovies? Scallop? Paprika? What the heck is all this... Where's the double cheese pizza with pepperoni?'_

It was quite obvious how confused the blonde was as he slowly lowered his menu to the table, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration. He placed his hands between his legs as he leant his torso forward to read the menu further, biting on his bottom lip. Rich people liked to eat in fancy places, he got that, but why would they bother going to a restaurant where they had to guess what they were eating? To him, it seemed a waste of stomach space. What if you ordered something you didn't like? Or something you were allergic too but didn't know?

All these questions buzzed through Joey's head, leaving him a little exasperated and frustrated. He understood the good will gesture but a part of him would have been happy going to a greasy, local burger joint, he didn't care where as long as he was with Kaiba...-!

The blonde's eyes widened before his eyebrows furrowed in a sort of _'what in the actual fuck did I just think?_ ' sort of way. Joey jumped violently when he heard the brunette speak from across the table. Their eyes met and the teen's breathing hitched in his throat. What was going on? Had Kaiba slipped him some sort of roofie when he wasn't looking? Or had he developed some sort of mind control weapon at KaibaCorp and that's why he was acting so weird?

Blinking rapidly, Joey spoke, the first few words coming out gargled and strained. He cleared his throat before deciding not to speak at all and just nodding at Kaiba, signalling for him to order on behalf of the both of them. After the waitress had left, Joey found himself staring down at the palms of his hands, reliving the muscle memory of Kaiba's touch from earlier. He glanced up at the brunette and frowned at him.

"I don't get it Kaiba..." He half whispered, half murmured, his eyes never leaving the brunette's, "After all these years, hatin' each other, spittin' insults, thinkin' you were the worst person in the whole world... and now we're sittin' having dinner in a fancy Italian restaurant and every time I look at you I feel like my head is spinnin' and I can't breathe and I wonder if you're thinkin' the same or if it's just a game you're playin' and then all these feelings get worse and-.. I don't get it..." The blonde said with a sigh, lowering his gaze before turning to look back out at the window to his right, the sun having now fully set, leaving Domino City flooded in its bright night life.

 **K:** That grin. That god damn grin; it got him going every time. It was the way his lips parted enough just so you could see his teeth, an actual genuine smile. The way his eyes glistened mischievously through strands of messy, golden hair. He was just an absolute treasure to look at and luckily for Seto Kaiba, he was all his. At least, for the evening.

Cerulean eyes stayed locked on the boy as he looked up and down his menu, feeling his heart peace skip as the blonde bit his lip _. 'Does he always do that?_ ' the brunette thought to himself, licking his own lips as he watched. _'How have I not noticed that before?_ ' In all honesty, there was a lot of things he hadn't noticed about Joey before the other night and, well, even before tonight. It was little things, like how his hair parted, the way his skin was slightly tanned... and the size of his wrists. He never noticed the delicacy of the boy before, not through his 'tough guy' exterior. It felt like he was seeing the boy now laid completely bare of any 'stereotype' or insult that Seto himself had ever thrown at him. And he loved what he saw.

As Joey tried to speak, Seto just did that trademark half smile, half smirk and nodded, ordering accordingly. Luckily for the both of them, he had already pre-planned what to order in case this situation did arise... so he made sure to order his puppy a pepperoni pizza. Simple, but, he knew the boy would like it. As he finished ordering the food, he glanced back over to Joey, about to open his mouth to say something when a familiar sound interrupted him. It was his mobile. _'Mokuba..._ ' he thought tirelessly to himself, putting his hand into his pocket and pulling out his phone, keeping it low down so Joey didn't think he was being rude. Hoping the blonde hadn't even noticed, he swiped the phone on to see who had just text him. Cerulean eyes widened and then swiftly narrowed as he read the small, pixelated letters. ' _Ryu'_ it said simply, an emoji of a little dragon next to his name. Sometimes, even Kaiba couldn't resist the cuter things in life. Sighing, he slipped his phone back into his pocket without even bothering to read the message. _'Must be trying to sort out times for arriving tomorrow,'_ he mused, rolling his tongue along the lining of his mouth in thought before shrugging it off. _'I'll just reply tomorrow.'_

Almost forgetting the situation because he was still re-thinking over the unknown text, his whole attention snapped back to the blonde as he spoke, gaze locking again. As he listened to the blonde's words, cerulean eyes softened slightly, like great glaciers melting in sunlight.

"Joey," he started as soon as the blonde took his gaze away from him. "Joey." he said again, making sure to get the blonde's attention as he spoke. This was probably the first time he had ever addressed the boy - face to face - by his first name. The syllables felt foreign on his tongue. "This is not a game- I understand why you think that, but its not." he paused, bringing his top lip into his mouth and biting it slowly, struggling to find the right words to say. He felt on the spot now, feeling heat beneath his cheeks. "The other night... I just couldn't leave you there. And I don't know why either. Really, I don't understand either. But. I didn't. And now we're here. And you just have to trust me, because I'm trusting you too." the brunette practically whispered, not even being able to maintain the eye contact that he initiated, also glancing out of the window and then straight back to Joey. He began to put his hand out again for the boy, placing his palm up and open but just as he did so, the waitress returned, harbouring plate upon plate of food.

"Here you go, gentlemen." she practically sang, plating the food up in front of the two teens. Seto didn't even acknowledge her, didn't look at her, say anything. He just kept his eyes on his pup, smiling from the corner of his mouth.

 **J:** Joey hadn't noticed Kaiba take out his phone, he was too fixated on the city below him. All he'd ever known was the 4 walls of his apartment and the putrid scent of stale alcohol on his father's breath and the taste of blood on his split lip. Because of Yugi, because of Duel Monsters, he had been able to travel the world. He'd been to Egypt, up in a blimp, sucked into a virtual world, travelled most of the country chasing down Mai and Valon, saved his sister Serenity's sight... All those times were great, he had amazing memories with his friends and painful ones too. Because of duel monsters, Joey had been able to go further in life than he'd ever been able to dream of. He'd gone from some jumped up, Yankee kid with a chip on his shoulder and a penchant for beating up nerds to one of the top duellists in the world. A sudden moment of clarity washed over the boy, his eyes beginning to sting with the arrival of tears. He blinked them back hastily and inhaled deeply before turning back to look at Kaiba hearing his name being called. Because of Duel Monsters he'd met Kaiba, no matter how much of an asshole he'd been in the past, Joey wouldn't have traded their meeting for anything in the world.

"Yeah?" the blonde mumbled quietly, realising the brunette had just called him by his first name. Not Wheeler, not mutt, his real name. He watched as Kaiba tried to articulate his thoughts, the rouge on his cheeks betraying his usual cold verve and told the boy that he must have been struggling. He listened intensely, unaware of the waitress coming from the kitchen door holding trays of food. He leant in, heart pounding in his chest, amber eyes wide and glistening with intensity.

"I trust you t-" Joey stoppe, leaning back in his chair to allow the woman to set down a huge plate of pepperoni pizza. The smell was intoxicating and any other time, Joey would have felt his mouth water and his stomach expand on the spot, ready to destroy every last morsel of his meal but instead, the blonde was focused on the company sitting directly opposite him, that same smug smirk on his face. He held the brunette's gaze, his own cheeks starting to turn pink.

"Kaiba... I think I understand now-"


	11. Chocolate Fudge Cake Fun

**K:** The thing that Joey probably didn't realise, though, was that he was worth it. Through all the abuse his dad gave him, through losing probably one of the only people he truly thought he loved, through almost not being able to save his sister, everything that Joey did was worth it. His friends knew it and Seto, too, was starting to learn it. It was insane to think about how much one singular night out of the hundreds - probably thousands - of nights they could have spent with each other, that just one, changed everything entirely. Seto's lack of cold demeanour, his smiles, the way he was letting the blonde see the real him: Joey was definitely worth it.

"Go on," Seto was the first to break the silence, scooting forward in his chair towards the table and crossing one leg over the other. "You can eat, you know. Puppy must be hungry by now." the brunette teased, flashing the other teen a playful glance. Without saying anything else, he tucked into his food. As always, he had a simple carbonara. For the price that Seto was going to have to eventually pay, it probably wasn't worth it for JUST a plain carbonara but, hey, he had money to blow so he might as well. He was obviously the type of guy who would get a gold plated toilet seat just so he could say he could have one. In fact, he probably already DID have one.

As the two came close to finishing their meal, Seto felt his phone going off in his pocket again. He frowned, having to interrupt the light conversation that him and Joey were having as he pulled it back from his trouser pocket.

"Sorry, pup." he apologised, holding his hand up to the boy to signal _'just give me one minute'_. Again, the screen lit up with the words _'Ryu_ ', the same dragon emoji attached at the end. The brunette stared at it bitterly. _'What's his problem?'_ he sighed, placing the phone face up on the table, not bothering to put it in his pocket again because the vibration was starting to annoy him. This was the 4th time it had gone off this evening and quite frankly, he didn't care for it at all. And, in Seto's genuine thinking, he didn't have anything at all to hide from the blonde boy.

The waitress came back over, smiling and cooing as always.

"You two having a nice date night then?" she asked absent mindedly whilst clearing their plates away.

"Yes, perfect." Seto replied swiftly, not wanting the blonde to feel awkward about the situation at all. And hey, it wasn't a lie. He sent a glance that pretty much said _'this fuckin' girl'_ over to his date whilst rolling his eyes and waited for her to leave.

"Oh that's just great. And- oh, dessert menus! Here you go!" she beamed, giving each of the teens their own menu. She disappeared again, taking everything on the table away bar the candle in the middle and their menus. Seto picked the menu up in both hands, cerulean eyes scanning it word for word. That damn sweet tooth again. He hum-med and ha-ed before looking back up at Joey, wrinkling his nose at the top.

"I don't know what I want." he paused, pursing his lips. "Do you even want anything? Actually, do you just wanna share something?" the CEO asked, a sudden innocence about him. Again, this was the side to him that no one saw. The side that wanted to go on dates and share desserts because, even though he was too full to eat his own, he definitely STILL wanted one and quite frankly, just wanted to drag the evening out for as long as he could.

 **J:** Joey stopped himself from going any further. This was crazy, how could one night with Kaiba and a trip to the Shadow Realm be making him feel this way.

 _'Bakura, if you're there, fuck off would'ya_?' He silently cursed in his head, a part of him wondering if the ancient spirit had something to do with his sudden strong attraction and liking towards Seto Kaiba. He didn't get a reply, nor did his vision fade to black, so he assumed he was safe and sound in his own body... which almost made him worry all the more. It meant what he was feeling, experiencing, was all him...

Glancing down at the food, Joey nodded, the pizza halfway to his mouth before he was referred to as a pup again. He narrowed his gaze at the CEO before giving a sarcastic smile.

"If I'm a mutt, Kaiba, I should eat like one," He threatened, placing the piece of pizza down on the plate and pulling his hands behind his back. He linked his hands together tightly and lowered his head inch by inch towards his plate, fully prepared to eat with just his mouth like a dog would. He clocked the look of horror on Seto's face and laughed, assuming his normal 'human' position.

"Gotchya. You don't think I'm that much of a chump, do ya? I know a fancy restaurant when I see one, Kaiba boooy," The blonde mocked, putting on his best impression of Pegasus.

Joey was on his seventh piece of pizza out of eight before Kaiba took out his phone from his pocket, apparently someone was ringing him. This didn't come as much of a surprise to the blonde, in fact, he was surprised they hadn't been interrupted more times. He assumed someone like Kaiba had a busy schedule and that his phone hardly ever went off. As if on cue, Joey's own phone went off. Seeing this as an opportunity to check the message without being rude, Joey licked off the tomato sauce from index, middle finger and thumb before tapping on the message. It was from Atem:

 _Yugi filled me on what happened at the school gates earlier. If he's a jerk to you again, call me. I'll come pick you up. He better be offering up his own ass to you later, no lube, no protectioasdflkagjlg..-agligs Joey its Yugi, sorry Atem got a little carried away ^^ I'm sure Kaiba just wanted to apologise for things. Have a good time tonight and text me when you're home so I know you're safe! d(^-^)b_

 _Yugi xo_

Joey blinked at the text, an eyebrow raised and a smile spread across his face in absolute confusion and amusement. The waitress arrived back at their table and cleaned of the leftover food. Joey had kinda wanted the last piece of pizza but decided not to say anything. Stuffing the phone back in his pocket, the blonde laid back in his chair and patted at the food baby. He was pretty stuffed. He didn't even bother picking up the desert menu.

"Yeah sure, sure. But you can have most of it, I'm about to burst," Joey said with a yawn, feeling a sudden wash of exhaustion. "Maybe like some ice cream or somethin'?"

 **K:** "Jesus-!" Seto started, lurching forward in his seat, reaching out to the blonde boy as if it was going to make a shred of difference to his behaviour or not. He watched in part horror, part amusement as the boy threw his hands behind his back. As soon as the blonde stopped, Seto was able to fall back into his chair, bringing his hand up to his temples for a moment before looking back up at the blonde through his hand. "You're going to give me a nose bleed here." he joked, rolling his eyes once more at the blonde.

The brunette actually immediately noticed that Joey was on his phone too. This time, he actually had no right at all to be jealous seeing as the only reason that the other teen was on his phone... was because Seto was first. He couldn't help but feel his heart drop a bit as the Pharaoh's words ran through his mind again from that morning. He shook it off quickly, frowning to himself as he did so.

"Hmmm," Seto pondered at the blonde boy's decision. Ice cream? Nah. Seto had other plans. "Okay. That sounds fine." he lied, showing absolutely no signs at all that he disagreed with Joey's plan. The CEO ushered the waitress over with a slightly wave of his hand.

"You guys ready-"

"The chocolate fudge cake, please." he ordered, once again not looking at her, eyes only on Joey. "With a side of vanilla ice cream." as she walked away, notepad in hand, Seto shrugged, feigning confusion. "Sorry, Wheeler. I forgot what you asked for so I just got what I wanted instead." the brunette winked again, loving to tease his puppy. Anyway, he knew fine well once it arrived Joey wasn't going to complain anyway because... well, let's face it: it's Joey Wheeler we're talking about here.

Literally 5 minutes later, probably even less, the dessert had arrived. Assuming it was for them to share, she placed it in the middle of the table, giving each boy a dessert spoon. To save time, she also placed the bill on the side, Seto giving her a nod of acknowledgement and pulling the small tray with the receipt closer to him. Of course he was going to pay.

"Help yourself." he offered, grabbing his own spoon and assuming Joey was going to do the same, despite how full the boy said that he was.

 **J:** Joey looked up at Kaiba and noticed the ever-so-subtle change in his body language. His shoulders had stiffened slightly and his smile had faded for only a moment into pursed lips. He wondered if the boy was jealous. It was irrational, seeing as the both of them had been on their phones for only a few minutes, but Kaiba was hardly the person to listen to rationality. He was sure the brunette didn't wake up one morning and think, _'A duel monsters tournament held on top of a massive blimp hovered over the city at night, that's not an irrational idea at all.'_

Deciding to be honest because... well, he didn't know why, he just felt it was the right thing to do, Joey took out his phone and scrolled to Yugi's message. He leant forward, stomach protesting as he did and slid the device towards Kaiba for him to read.

"It was just Yug and the Pharaoh," He said with a smile. Yeah it might piss Kaiba off that they had texted him, but they were his best friends, just looking after him. And anyway, maybe it would put the brunette at ease if Joey was open and honest about who he was talking to. Why he felt like he had to put Kaiba at ease, he still didn't know why, but whatever the case was- Joey knew he didn't want the evening to be ruined over something so stupid.

Retrieving his phone, Joey sat back up in his seat properly, hoping the straightened posture might help his stomach digest the masses amount of pizza now gurgling in his gut. He watched Kaiba order something he didn't ask for and rolled his eyes.

"Typical rich boy, always gettin' his own way," The blonde teased, stretching out his leg naturally to stretch out the cramp he suddenly felt. As he did, he felt his calf connect with something else which he was pretty sure wasn't the table leg. He glanced up at Kaiba, the desert arriving promptly between them.

"I'll have whatever you leave," Joey said with a shrug, his attention now solely focused on the connection of their legs which he refused to move from.

 **K:** As the phone slid across the table to him, Seto instinctively craned his neck slightly, looking down at the glaring phone screen. He literally read the two names as Joey spoke them out loud, his eyebrows pinching in the middle slightly. It was genuinely all impulsive - he couldn't help it. Noticing how his body was reacting, he correct it, leaning back up in his seat... but his eye was still on the phone as he quickly tried to read as much of the message as he humanly could. The CEO got to the word 'ass' and swiftly stopped reading, pupils dilating slightly, his whole face feeling the heat this time, not just his cheeks.

"It's nice that they care..." he managed to force out, not really knowing what else to say about the matter and, quite frankly, not WANTING to say anything else about the matter.

"Hey, at least this rich boy is paying." Seto smiled smugly, wrinkling his nose at the boy which was actually a trait that he had picked up from Mokuba. He had noticed that whenever his brother wanted to express his fondness of something, be it duel cards, Seto himself or food, he always wrinkled his nose. Somehow, the older Kaiba brother had adopted it too. It was to such a degree now that he didn't even realise he was doing it; it was just built into his system. The brunette suddenly felt something bumping at his leg and instinctively, he leant back to look under the table. Of course, there was only one explanation for what it could have been and that was the other boy's leg. Revelling in the mere physical contact with the blonde boy, Seto just adjusted his leg so that they were both comfortable, but both still touching. He didn't make a big fuss, in fact he didn't address the situation at all, he just went straight onto dessert. "Alright, I'll remind you that you said that when there's none of it left."

Without wasting any more time, the brunette dug into the steaming fudge cake, a large dollop of ice-cream sat next to it which was already starting to melt. As the cake itself was warm, the fudge icing was melting off, forming a pool of chocolate and vanilla on the side of the plate. Looking like a child in a candy shop, Seto plunged his fork in, taking a good chunk of the cake and ice cream with him and without even hesitating brought it straight to his mouth. He chewed a couple of times and then swallowed, looking up and Joey opened mouthed. That was some damn good cake.

"Wheeler, trust me on this one, you have to try some." he ordered, putting a (slightly) smaller portion of the cake mixed with ice cream on the end of his fork and leaning forward over the table, holding his free hand underneath the fork to make sure that none dropped off. As he moved forward, their legs connected even more, finally reaching the point where one of Seto's knees was directly between both of Joey's, his other knee to the side. It was a strange, limb-like jigsaw. He simply waited, watching the blonde boy expectantly as he held the food out, ready to directly feed the boy.

 **J:** Joey watched in silence as Kaiba's eyes glistened at the prospect of cake. It was as if the teen was mesmerised, the chocolate sauce melting onto the plate some sort of hypnotic movement that sent the brunette into a weird trance.

 _'Kaiba really likes sweet stuff..._ ' Joey thought to himself, making a mental note that he would probably use sometime in the future for whatever reason.

Resting his arms on the table, Joey cupped each end of his elbows and smiled. He was happy, really happy. The evening hadn't gone exactly as planned as when he had been shoved into the limo with the unapologetic brunette earlier that evening he had expected a much more violent conclusion to their night. Things had gone in a completely different direction and the blonde still had no idea how to explain all of... _'this_ ' to his friends, but he knew Yugi and the Pharaoh would be the best people to talk to seeing as the two of them were like... an item or whatever.

Lifting his amber eyes to train on Kaiba's lips, Joey shook his head like a child having a tantrum. He really was full.

"Kaiba I-" Joey paused, seeing the fork coming closer to his face. He swallowed hard and suddenly stiffened, feeling Seto's knee between the both of his.

This was the most romantic and admittedly erotic thing he'd ever done in his whole life. He didn't want to mess it up but he didn't want to try too hard (things never worked out when Joey Wheeler tried hard.) He decided to wing it, that usually worked.

Swallowing nervously, Joey leant his body forward as there was still a considerable space between him and the fork and opened his mouth. Simultaneously, while the rich chocolate cake slid between his lips, Kaiba's knee slid further up the inside of Joey's thigh until it had brushed up between his legs momentarily. The blonde sat back down in his seat, their knees still tangled together, his teeth devouring the sponge cake within seconds.

"That was pretty good," The blonde murmured, his voice wavering slightly, his cheeks having turned a shade darker than usual.

K: As the blonde boy tried to reject his offer, Seto simply just raised both of his eye brows, his whole face screaming _'come on, live a little'_. He was pleased when the blonde suddenly stopped, weighing up his options. He was going to take it, he knew he was. Cerulean eyes stayed locked on the boy as he swallowed, the own CEO feeling a tingle in the pit of his stomach as the watched Joey's adam's apple bob up and down. It was so defined. So… sexy?

Speaking of sexy.

Cerulean eyes widened again and pupils dilated as the blonde boy leant in. Making sure not to make a huge mess out of everything, Seto hitched up in his seat slightly, tilting the fork upwards to make it a little bit easier for the blonde. As he did so, his eyes never left the blonde's face, both of the teen's cheeks flushed with deep crimson. Once the cake was fully in Joey's mouth, the brunette reclined a little bit, feeling his knee brush the inside of the other boy's thigh, that same tingle in the pit of his stomach coming back again. He was absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, turned on. With his natural lust getting the better of him, Seto shifted back in his seat, making a point to slightly raise his knee again, feeling the material of his trousers ever so slightly brush against the blonde's crotch. For the time being, that would have to do.

"I knew you'd like it." Seto said with a particular certainty, referring to not just the cake... but Joey knew that.


	12. Betrayal

**K:** There was a pause for a couple of seconds as Seto simply stared at the boy, cerulean eyes dancing with a new fire. The corner of his lip twitched slightly and his eyes narrowed - but not in the way they normally did. This time they narrowed with an intensity that couldn't be described, the brunette also having to swallow to get his thoughts back on track. He had to calm down. Slowly, reluctantly, he untangled his long legs from the other boy's, placing his palms flat down on the table as he stood up.

"I'll be back in a minute, pup." he stated, gaze flickering away from the boy and landed on the gentleman's toilet signs that were over Joey's shoulder. Not having to say anything else, he made his way around the table, stopping momentarily next to his golden puppy. From his height, the boy was just above waist level meaning that Seto had to look down on him. The lust from his eyes soon faded as he raised an eyebrow at the teen, bringing a large, slender hand straight up to the boys chin. The brunette stood there for a moment, gently cupping the boy's face and tilting his head upwards, so he could look right into his eyes, making sure that Joey could see the softness in his own face, one eyebrow still raised in a bemused, yet gentle, manner. With his thumb, he wiped the corner of the boy's mouth and then let go on his chin, showing Joey a little bit of chocolate that Seto had rubbed off. He chuckled and brought his thumb to his own mouth, licking the remainder of chocolate sauce off. And then, with that, he walked towards the gentleman's toilets, having no doubt that he needed to splash some cold water over his face.

 **J:** Joey was only just recovering from the first brush of Seto's knee before it happened again. He felt his body tense in apprehension and a rush of goosebumps running over his skin. His right hand, stretched out across the table, gripped at the cloth, his fist balled tightly as he tried to calm down his racing heart. It was nothing, just the way they were sitting, Kaiba hadn't done it on purpose... The blonde glanced up at the brunette and swallowed hard, realising the intense gaze on him.

 _'He totally did that on purpose..._ ' Joey thought to himself which prompted another shudder and an unusual ache in the pit of his stomach. The blonde suddenly felt very hot and uncomfortable, fidgeting in his seat under Kaiba's intense stare. There was that knowing smile, the smirk, the brunette knew exactly what was going on. Pulling his hands away from the table, Joey shut his eyes for a moment and slowly exhaled, trying to contain himself. If he looked at Kaiba's smile any longer he didn't know if he'd be able to control himself. He only opened his eyes when he felt his legs being brushed against as the brunette moved from their table.

"Okay," Was all Joey could squeeze out, his body still uncomfortably hot and his thoughts unorganised and erratic. He watched as Kaiba moved to stand beside him and turned his head to look up at him. Out of the blue, a warm but firm hand was pressed against his cheek, bringing his head further up to look into the brunette's brilliant eyes.

 _'No, I can't keep lookin' at you like this..._ ' Joey thought to himself as his own amber eyes focused on cerulean before trailing down to the teen's nose and then to his lips. His heart hammered in his chest and his body began to shake. A sudden, intense urge to grab Kaiba by the collar and pull him in for a kiss was overwhelming. Luckily for Joey, the brunette made a move. He wiped gently at the corner of the blonde's mouth, prompting his lips to part in anticipation, a small laboured breath escaping. Joey's eyes widened as he watched Kaiba lick away the chocolate on his thumb before turning on his heel and heading further into the restaurant.

"Fuck." Joey breathed heavily, turning his head back around to the now empty chair in front of him, his cheeks burning red. With the sun having set outside, the restaurant moved to accommodate the lighting change by dimming the house lights to reveal chains of fairy lights clung to the walls, decoratively placed, lit up subtly against the darkness of the restaurant. It was gentle but... sexy and affective and gave the overall mood of the place an overhaul. Going from upper-class, business men dinner to intense, reclusive dates.

The blonde lifted his hands from the chair's armrests and leant his elbows on the table, his thumb going to his teeth which he bit down on in thought. His eyes glanced down to the table where the brunette's phone suddenly started to vibrate. Out of nothing but innocent curiosity, Joey leant further over the table to peer at the name on the caller I.D.

 _'Ryu'_ with a small dragon emoji next to his name.

Joey leant back in his seat and cocked his head to one side. He hadn't pegged Kaiba as the 'cutesy' type but then again, nor had he clocked the teen's sweet tooth or wrinkling of his nose before last Friday and this evening. Perhaps this Ryu had put his own name into the phone and Kaiba just couldn't be bothered to change it.

Thinking nothing of the phone call, not realising it had been the same person who had interrupted them earlier on in the meal, Joey settled back into his seat. That's when the unusual nerves began to settle in. Butterflies invaded his stomach and a sort of sick but excited feeling made him call over a waitress and ask for a glass of water. It arrived in a matter of seconds which he nearly finished in one breath.

 _'Calm down, it's just Kaiba, why are you getting yourself so worked up over him?'_ He told himself, a stupid grin appearing on his face as he did. He suddenly felt giddy, like a small child excited at Christmas as he awaited for the brunette's return from the toilet.

 **K:** Seto veered the corner into the bathroom as if something was nipping at his heel. He literally couldn't get out of there quick enough. It was the way Joey looked at him - the way his mouth parted slightly, revealing his soft, pink tongue. He practically felt the boy's heartbeat being reflected into his own, now feeling slightly light headed and woozy. Seto wasn't the type to get flustered very often but it was just such unknown territory with Joey he couldn't help it. He couldn't help anything around him.

As he pushed through the heavy double doors into the bathroom he went straight to one of the sinks, a huge Victorian framed mirror mottled in gold directly above it. The usually conceited brunette didn't even bother to look at himself first, he went straight to the cold tap, pushing it all the way to full. With large, slender hands, he cupped some of the water, bringing his face down slightly so he could splash his face. He did this a couple of times, cerulean eyes squeezed shut as tiny droplets of water clung to his eyelashes. Placing both of his hands either side of the sink, Seto looked up, staring at himself in the mirror, his face still dripping, a couple of strands of hair also suffering the water damage. But it was fine. It was all fine. He sighed, bringing the back of his hand up to his eyes and wiping the remaining water away. He then took a step back, straightening up to full height as he inspected himself in the mirror. Cerulean locked onto cerulean.

"Fuck." he also breathed heavily, gaze slowly slipping down the mirror, making sure that apart from a little bit of wet hair, he was still presentable. He turned to the side slightly with just his upper body, turning his head the opposite direction so he could inspect his behind and then his front. And then. "Fuck!" he repeated, quickly untucking his white shirt from his trousers and forcing the otherwise non-stretchy material down over his crotch. Apparently, his little trick under the table didn't just get his puppy going.

He remained there for a few moments, just staring at himself. I mean, he had to admit: he looked pretty damn good and he wasn't even dressed up to his full potential. To make up for the now un-tucked shirt, he rolled both of his sleeves up and un-buttoned the top two buttons, revealing the very top of his chest, his collarbones being able to be seen depending on how he moved. If anything, he just looked a bit more relaxed and chances are, no one would even notice, not at this point. After quickly touching up the front of his hair, pulling a few loose strands back into place, the CEO thought it was about time to go back out and play with his puppy.

"Hey," he greeted simply, as he came up behind the blonde. This time, he managed to resist touching him, simply sitting back down in his seat opposite. Droplets of water still clung to parts of his neck, rolling down onto his pale chest but the CEO didn't notice - or care- at this point. "Hope you didn't miss me to..o.. much..." Seto began with a smirk but suddenly began to trail off, his gaze shifting from Joey to just over his shoulder. His pupils dilated slightly before he quickly looked back to Joey, hoping the blonde hadn't noticed. Not even a second went by before he glanced again, that smirk dropping right off his face and turning into a look of apprehension. "Oh god-" he mumbled, being cut off abruptly.

"Seto Kaiba," a strange voice purred from behind Joey's head, getting closer with each syllable. "Little bit rude to ignore business calls like that, isn't it?"

"Joey-" Seto started, eyes locked directly onto the blonde boy in front of him. Again, he was cut off.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"Ryu-"

"Okay good."

And there he stood: Ryu with the dragon emoji next to his name. Soon enough, he was stood between the two boys, leaning on the edge of their table, long slender fingers tapping the wood to bring all attention towards himself. His hair was frost white and icy, his eyes as translucent as crystal water but still managed to hold their blue hue. Ryu was tall, slender, not a hint of fat (or even muscle) on him at all. He was dainty and yet, somehow, commanded attention just by being there. The boy was wearing a brilliant white suit, a small, black dragon embodied onto the front pocket of his blazer.

"You didn't get my texts?" he pouted, leaning more towards Seto's side of the table. In fact, he was flat out ignoring Joey, treating him worse than he treated his own house servants.

"What are you doing here?" the brunette hissed, eyes slowly beginning to wander from his blonde date opposite him. Eventually, he just couldn't help but stare at the other blonde boy, now perched precariously closely to him. In a flash, everything came back to him: the parties, the way Ryu smelt, the arguments... the sex. Everything. Swallowing, Seto dared to glance back over at Joey, not really knowing what the next move was. "You said you were arriving tomorrow. What are you doing here?" he repeated, cerulean eyes flickering painfully.

"Plans change, darling," the blonde replied sharply, grabbing the fork that Seto had only moments ago fed Joey with, bringing up to his own lips and smirking the same exact smirk that Seto pulled. The sight of it made the CEO shudder. "But no, seriously, I decided to come a night earlier, I have friends here too, Seto, even if you don't." Ryu gestured over his shoulder to a group of 5 other people of mixed genders sat a few tables away from them.

"How long have you been here?" Seto frowned, eyes narrowing as they met with his business partner's again. He wasn't intentionally cutting Joey out of the conversation, but at this point, it was probably a little bit too awkward to do so.

"Long enough to see you've got another little toy on your hands," the light eyed boy teased, pointing the fork over his shoulder to Joey as he now had his back completely to Seto's date, making it difficult for the brunette to focus on either one. "You could have been a little more original, darling. Didn't you take me here on our first da-"

"His name's Joey." Seto cut through the boy's words sharply, quick to defend the 'toy' comment, bringing himself to his feet. Saying nothing, he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and placed a wad of notes on the bill plate, signalling that this evening was now over. As the CEO stood to his full height, Ryu did the same, practically rivalling Seto in terms of height. In fact, when stood together, they really did look like the ultimate power couple and quite frankly, that's exactly what they were and that's exactly why it didn't work. "And no I didn't. Ryu, this conversation's over. I'll call you tomorrow to organise the meeting."

"Joey," the white haired boy mused, his neck rolling to the side so he could also look at Joey. "Sounds like a name for a dog."


	13. 1, 2, 3

**Joey:** Joey sat at his seat, fidgeting, amber eyes flickering from the space in front of him to the nightlife down below. He started to wonder how many people were down there on a Friday night, partying, getting drunk or eating food or going on dates. Was there someone like him going on a date with someone like Kaiba? Were they from two separate worlds and only a chance meeting with an ancient spirit had suddenly brought them together? The blonde snorted at that idea and chuckled to himself. Nope, that only happened to him and Yugi. Remembering the text from his friends earlier, Joey glanced behind his shoulder to check to see if Kaiba was back yet, not wanting to upset him by taking out his phone. Joey quickly whipped out the device from his pocket and clicked onto the text, replying promptly:

 _Guys, you're my best friends, but the butt sex jokes have gotta stop. Might be busy later, don't wait up._

It was simple but they'd understand, no doubt Yugi would have to hold the Pharaoh back from writing something in response that was extra vulgar, hilarious and mildly protective as usual. Slipping the phone back into his school jacket, the blonde exhaled and settled back into his seat, his heart finally having gone back to a normal rate. It was then that the phone began to ring, again on the other side of the table. Craning his neck, being too full and too lazy to move his whole body, Joey saw the flash of the name and the small emoji once again and rose an eyebrow. This guy was really desperate to get a hold of Kaiba. The blonde tried to rationalise the sinking feeling creeping into his conscious mind by saying he didn't know the world of business and that it was probably to go over some super huge, important and expensive contract or business deal and that calling on a Friday night was probably a normal thing for CEO's and businessmen of the world. Joey nodded at his own resolve and slumped forward slightly, his elbow rested on the table as his hand cupped his cheek.

' _No point gettin' weird about a phone call...'_ He thought to himself.

Eventually Kaiba returned, his voice coming out of the blue and startling Joey out of his daydream. He often got sleepy after a large meal and the fatigue after a week's worth of exams and studying, dealing with his Father and the energy spent worrying and thinking about Kaiba had left him pretty lifeless. He admittedly, expected some form of contact, perhaps a gentle brushing of his back or a ruffle of his hair, but there was nothing. In a way, it sort of heightened things and got the blonde somewhat more excited even though he had just calmed down.

 _'God... damn,'_ Joey thought to himself as his eyes completely missed Kaiba's and went straight to the open shirt and droplets of water trickling down his beautifully white skin. The blonde glanced up, noticing the hint of red in the other's cheeks and found a grin appearing on his face as he put two and two together. The big shot CEO, the cool and collected, the stone cold businessmen Seto Kaiba had gotten a little flustered. Joey couldn't help but feel pride well up inside of him. He felt like he was breaking down the wall Kaiba had probably spent years building up to shield himself from people. Just piece by piece... it was happening.

"What are you, kiddin'? I was enjoyin' staring at the empty chair instead of starin' at your ugly mug all even-" Joey cut himself off mid-sentence, noticing the brunette's eyes darting to something behind him. The blonde frowned and cocked his head to one side, eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

"Kaiba?"

A man. A beautifully slim, commanding, hypnotic man. Immediately Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon came to Joey's mind once the stranger had come between them at the table. The blonde stared into Kaiba's eyes, listening intently to the conversation, reading the body language, feeling his own body language respond to what he was watching and hearing. Stretching out his hand, Joey took a hold of his glass and swallowed at what was left of the water from earlier, his hand setting down the glass but still gripping at it weakly. He was keeping his cool, staying composed, trying to be the civil, well brought up person he knew Kaiba wanted him to be.

That didn't last long.

Firstly, Joey felt his eyebrows twitch as he was forced to listen to the drivel coming from this Ryu's mouth, calling Kaiba 'darling' something so unbecoming of a man.

Secondly, his eyes narrowed as he stared into the brunette's eyes, willing him with all that he had for the teen to spare him one millisecond to glance over, to give him a reassuring smile, to acknowledge his fucking existence.

Thirdly, the undeniable stab of jealousy and betrayal. So he wasn't the first person to be brought up to a fancy Italian restaurant and fed cake too and stared out at the night sky with? Kaiba had done this... all of this, with THAT guy? How many others had Kaiba brought here? He had the cheek to drag him away from HIS friends when HE was in the wrong and take him to somewhere he'd taken this PRICK too? He'd messed around with his feelings, led him on, actually made him believe that he was special and had a fucking purpose in this life only to stab him in the back and betray him. It was all a game. A game that Joey was no longer going to play.

There was a smash. The sound was sharp, quick and followed by the sound of chair legs scraping violently across the floor. Joey stood up, the glass from earlier smashed to pieces in his hand. Shards of the material scattered the table like dangerous rose petals, a couple of which were plunged deeply into the palm of Joey's hand, crimson red blood dripping from his flesh to land in small puddles on the white, satin table cloth.

"You fuckin' prick," Joey hissed, his amber eyes burning with anger, his pupils dilated and his shoulders practically shaking with rage. "I hate you. I fuckin' hate you," The blonde yelled having stepped away from the table, roughly pulling the shards of glass from his hand and throwing them on the floor. "How could you fuckin' do this? It was all part of your plan, right? You two, together? String me along, make me feel all this shit and then fuck me over right at the end? Just for laughs? Just to show me how much of a MUTT I am and how I will NEVER fit in here in your classy restaurant with your jumped up waitresses and overpriced fucking pizzas. Well, you did it!" The boy threw his hands up into the air, the blood trickling from his wound down his wrist and under the blue jacket and down his arm. He was shaking now not from rage but from the onslaught of tears about to pour down his cheeks. "Seto Kaiba... always gets what he wants." Joey wrinkled his nose up in disgust before clearing his throat and spitting aggressively on the floor. Spinning on his heel, the blonde jumped up three small stairs before deciding to take the fire exit out of the building. He pulled open the door, his bloody hand leaving a stain on the handle before half running half jumping down the flights of stairs, tears of anger streaming down his face.

 **Kaiba:** "As you wish, Se-" the white haired boy was cut off suddenly, visibly flinching from the sound of glass shattering and then the sound of wood being dragged over the marble flooring. He turned to face Joey fully, one eyebrow raised as if to say _'what the fuck are you doing?'_ Seto also flinched, cerulean eyes fluttering shut as he felt the blonde's rage. Oh god, here we go.

As insults started to flood the brunette's ears, he re-opened his eyes, only just daring to look at his date who was now stood, blood pouring from his palm. As cerulean caught the crimson liquid pooling around Joey's palm, he couldn't help but wince, trying to reach forward over the table to take his hand into his own, wanting to make sure that the cut wasn't too deep. Of course, Joey dodged his touch, not that Seto even got that far away.

' _I hate you. I fuckin' hate you,_ ' the blonde cried, causing Seto to stop in his tracks, his hand still reaching out for the blonde's as if he was frozen in time. Joey's words obviously shook the brunette as he pulled his hand back, once again standing to full height, not really sure where to look. He could feel the eyes of everyone in the restaurant on him: other guests, the waitress and most of all, Joey's. Trying to remain collected, the CEO shifted his weight from one foot to the other, still not looking at the blonde boy as he yelled. He allowed him to have say his peace, remaining completely silent, every single syllable practically smacking him in the face. Eyebrows furrowed in the centre, the brunette now beginning to get visibly agitated. Sure, he understood Joey's outburst, he really did. From his perspective, it did seem cruel and calculated but Seto knew it wasn't, causing him to grow even more irritated as he blonde continued spitting accusations and insults at him.

"I didn't PLAN this-" he tried to interrupted, his voice cracking at the end of his sentence as he spoke. It was all he could think to say, his mind trying to make the mental decision of fight or flight. As Joey threw his arms up, Seto caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, wincing slightly as he did so, for some reason expecting to feel the blonde lurching out to punch him. However, the pain never came, but what Joey said next hurt him much more than his punches ever could have.

' _Seto Kaiba... always gets what he wants.'_ and with that, the blonde had taken off, leaving a well and truly shaken CEO behind.

There was a silence as Seto just stood there, watching as the blonde boy ran off. A lot of things were whirring through his head, causing him to re-freeze in thought as he tried to calculate the next option. He was furious now, shoulders shaking slightly, causing the white haired boy to back off slightly. He knew that look: he knew it very well and he also knew the most likely outcome, too.

"Seto..." Ryu exhaled as the restaurant began to go back to normal after watching the drama unfolding in front of them.

"Don't you dare." the CEO hissed, turning to completely face his ex-lover, cerulean eyes flickering with fury. He opened his mouth again, ready to completely break the man down with words - something he was practically a pro at by now - but before the first word even left his mouth, he stopped, hearing the fire exit slam shut. Suddenly, as if he'd just been struck by lightning, his body kicked in, causing the brunette to judder forward, face inches away from Ryu's. "I'll deal with you later. Tomorrow's off. Speak to me again and I'll break your neck." he snarled, waiting not a second longer to find out the boy's reaction as he bolted after the blonde, hand slipping on the fire exit handle slightly as he came into contact with Joey's blood. Yes, he was going to fight for Joey Wheeler.

"Joey!" he called after the boy who was currently spiralling his way down the stairs. Not hearing the boy's footsteps let up, the brunette also began to make his way down, feet skipping over each step effortlessly. Being considerably taller and being able to take more ground in his stride, Seto was soon catching up to the boy, stopping momentarily on a small landing between connecting stairs. "Joey, just stop!" he repeated, raking his hand through the front of his now dishevelled hair, leaving the blonde's blood painted over his forehead, mixing with the brunette's sweat. He took off again, inhaling sharply as he pinpointed the blonde. Jumping down a cluster of stairs, he was now directly behind the boy. Not wanting to take any risks of accidentally tripping the boy up, Seto grabbed hold of the banister and pushed his whole body weight up, long legs lifting off the floor and spiralling around the fire exit stairs, manoeuvring himself so he was now in front of the blonde. Breathing heavily, his now wobbly legs hitting the floor again, he practically tackled the blonde, shoving him into the corner of the current landing they were on. He made no more physical contact, just stood directly in front Joey, leaving absolutely no le-way for him to escape. "You need to listen to me, pup," he begged through gasps, trying to shake off his exhaustion. "It's not what it seems, I didn't plan this... please?"

 **Joey:** Joey raced down the stairs, two by two until he got to the last three of every flight and just jumped down them in one, landing cleanly with both feet hitting the floor before he brought one foot back and kicked off again to tackle the next set before him. Blood was rushing through his ears, tears clouded his vision and only cleared through rapid blinking and wiping away with his arm. His hand was pumping blood quite furiously, leaving a trail behind him on the floor or on the banisters whenever he grabbed a hold of one to anchor him as he skidded round the corner, the sound of his sneakers protesting against the hardened floor. He wasn't thinking about his body, about the pain in his hand or laboured breathing of his chest. No, he was blind to all of that, his mind just screamed at him to leave and run as fast as he could.

Suddenly a door slammed from above and the sound of his name echoed throughout the stairwell, sending a shudder through the blonde's body. A sudden wave of panic washed over the blonde, causing him to lose his footing on one of the steps. He tumbled forward, still landing on his feet but falling into a corner, his shoulder having smacked against the wall violently. He cursed under his breath, seeing flashes of black and white as Kaiba made his way faster than him down the stairs.

"Shit..." The blonde cursed as he forced himself upright, hand gripping at his shoulder that was quite clearly bruised. With adrenaline coursing through his veins, Joey was soon able to shrug off the pain in his body and carried on down the stairs, considerably slower than before as exhaustion began to take its toll as did his injuries.

"Just fuck off, Kaiba!" The blonde roared back, hearing footsteps getting closer, glancing over his shoulder to see the boy only one flight behind him. He cursed once again and carried on skipping 2 stairs and jumping down 3 until he could practically sense Kaiba behind him. In a flash, the brunette was now in front of him. Momentum too strong, Joey collided with Kaiba's body, feeling himself being thrown back into a corner. Trapped, unable to move.

Burning amber eyes stared into cerulean, his chest heaving up and down at an erratic pace, one hand still gripping at his throbbing shoulder. His blood stained his white shirt and jacket while flecks of the scarlet liquid smeared and dotted over the blonde's tanned skin.

"Let me go, Kaiba!" Joey yelled but made no attempt to move, instead, he did something quite unlike him. He allowed himself to cry. Tears welled up in his eyes and poured down his blood stained cheeks out of frustration and pain. "Just let me go, I can't look at you-" Joey remembered Ryu, the way he spoke to Kaiba, leant in close to his body... but what was worse was the way the brunette had reacted. He had been completely entranced, lost in the Blue Eyes' human, an invisible attraction pulling the two closer. It made the blonde feel sick just remembering it.

"I can't... I can't..." Joey mumbled, lowering his head so that the tears fell from his eyes and dripped onto the floor in small grey droplets. He had lowered his hands from his shoulders and now stood, slumped, almost bent over in physical and emotional pain. He was crying and it hurt. "Why did you do this to me..? Do you really hate me that much, Seto?"

 **Kaiba:** Seto didn't realise the blonde boy was crying. Maybe if he had realised sooner, he would have been able to try and do something about it, but now it was too late. As he stood there, purely using his energy to keep the boy pushed into the corner, all he could do was watch helplessly as Joey began to cry, an onslaught of tears filling his gorgeous amber eyes and freely rolling down his cheeks. A sudden sense of panic filled the brunette, his body still shaking from exhaustion and pain from the blonde's previous words. A deep, dark feeling began to fill the pit of his stomach, gurgling up into his lungs and leaving him breathless. It was the exact same feeling he got when Mokuba cried - and not over silly things, over things that mattered.

"No..." the CEO mumbled, eyes completely locked onto the blonde's face so whenever another tear rolled, whenever he moved his face, anything, the brunette captured it perfectly. "No, no, no...!" he choked out, his voice strangled and forced. Joey's blood also adorned Seto's clothes, little flecks of crimson dotting his otherwise pristine white shirt. It was on his face, his forehead, his chin. It was everywhere, a painful reminder of how upset the blonde boy really was. "God, Joey, no." he was struggling now, far too panicked to be able to put together full coherent sentences. He paused for a moment, just watching Joey crying, each tear destroying Seto's composure. He inhaled, taking a step closer into the blonde boy, bringing his hands up to touch his face, but he stopped just before doing so, trying to lock eyes with Joey to make sure that he had permission to do so. Getting absolutely nothing in response, he decided to test his luck, grabbing at the boy's face desperately, thumbs wiping away tears. Every time a new tear fell, the brunette tried to catch it, wiping it away as if it were nothing.

Moments passed, the brunette desperately trying to focus on stopping the blonde's tears from falling. If they didn't fall then maybe he would stop? Maybe he would be okay again? As irrational as it was, it was all Seto could go by, his face still flushed with panic.

"I'm sorry," he spoke softly, pain wrenching through every single syllable. "I'm so, so, sorry." the brunette continued to apologise, his body falling closer into Joey's. He didn't know what else to say, his heart beat so fast that he felt it was going to erupt right out of his chest. Every time he looked at Joey's face that same, dark feeling clogged up his lungs. "I don't hate you, I promise I don't hate you," stifled, both hands still on Joey's face, the heat from his cheeks tearing holes right through him. "I'm so sorry... please just listen to me..." the brunette begged once more, leaning even further into the boy as he said the word _'please'._ Flickering cerulean met hazy amber, pain reflected in both of their eyes as the two boys stood there, Seto hunched over Joey as if he were trying to protect him from himself. Practically in slow motion the brunette exhaled, eyes scanning for a sign of anything other than affliction in Joey's eyes. Everything went silent apart from the ringing in Seto's ears as his whole body tuned into Joey's. The heat, the pain, the crying, the anger, everything reflecting straight back into Seto's. His grip loosened on the boy's face, the tips of his fingers red from the pressure he was exerting onto him. He leant forward, eyes focused on the other boy's lips before he stopped, once again making eye contact with the smaller boy, making sure that he was coherent and watching. He looked down again, fixated on his lips. In one smooth movement, Seto pushed their faces together, lips connecting through metallic tasting blood and salty tears. Cerulean eyes flickered shut, his long eyelashes catching a couple of Joey's tears as they did so. He allowed the blonde to fall into him, their lips still connected as Seto tenderly kissed him, soft and open mouthed. He pulled away to look straight into Joey's eyes, desperation filling his own. Without saying another word, he crushed his lips back into the blonde's, this time more desperate, hungrier. One hand slipped away from the boy's cheek as he reached down and grabbed his good hand, intertwining their fingers and bringing it up above Joey's head so there was absolutely no means of escape for the boy now.


	14. Time to Think

**Joey:** As the adrenaline began to expel itself from the blonde's veins, all feelings and nerve endings and messages in his synapses began switching themselves on, sending a wave of clarity crashing over the boy. His stomach ached from the strain of being bent over and crying, his hand was stiff and caked in blood and sent spikes of pain up his arm at even the slightest movement, his shoulder had a deep throbbing sensation from where it had smacked against the wall and his eyes stung with tears, a foreign feeling to the blonde who so often kept his emotions bottled up and trapped inside. He felt like shit but none of his physical pain could compare to the pain he was feeling in his heart. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before- worse than thinking the Pharaoh was gone forever, worse than thinking Serenity had lost her sight, worse than seeing Mai destroyed by the Seal of Orichalcos. All those times combined could not amount to the ache in his heart that was practically tearing him apart.

The tears kept coming and even when his face was gently lifted into the light, he couldn't stop them from trickling down his cheeks. His beautiful amber eyes were bloodshot and his nose and face were red. His eyebrows were furrowed upwards, frown lines running across his forehead in an expression of distress. Kaiba's hands were trembling and not warm like before at dinner, they were now stone cold and almost painful to have against the blonde's skin. He sensed the pain in the brunette's gaze which only made him cry all the more. He choked on his own tears, not caring that Kaiba was the one and only person to have ever seen him like this in his entire life. He looked into the teen's eyes as he sobbed, crying like a baby that just couldn't stop.

After a while, Joey felt exhausted. He lowered his head in shame and lifted the sleeve of his jacket to wipe at his face, but instead of straightening back up, his hands stretched out blindly to rest on Kaiba's chest. His fingers, finding folds of material, gripped at the shirt as he leant his head forward to join his hands. The blonde rested his forehead to Kaiba's chest and exhaled slowly, trying to control his snuffled and broken sobs. It was then that Seto finally spoke. Every syllable uttered felt like a stab in the blonde's chest. The boy stood up properly and leant his back into the corner of the wall, feeling the brunette close the space between their bodies slowly as he continued to apologise.

"Kaiba... I-" Joey paused, a silence suddenly filling the stairwell. All Joey could hear was the rush of blood going to his ears and the pounding of his heart in his chest. His eyes had blinked away the last of his tears and now all he could see was Kaiba's face getting closer and closer to his. The blonde's eyes fluttered shut for a moment, his eyebrows softened and his mouth parted slightly as that same electricity from earlier filled the space between them. And then it was happening, they were kissing. Joey opened his mouth without a moment's hesitation, his knees suddenly buckling as he fell into the brunette's arms, hands reaching out to cup at his cheeks desperately. There was a moments break, allowing Joey a few laboured breaths before they connected once more, his mouth opening wide to allow room for Kaiba's tongue, their kiss fierce and desperate as if the moment they stopped and broke the physical contact, they might lose each other forever.

Joey was lost in euphoria. He could smell Kaiba's skin, taste the saltiness of his tears and metallic tinge from his blood but mostly he could feel the teen's warmth. Their bodies pressed together, Joey gripped tightly at Kaiba's hand, their lips still moving together passionately. It was only when Joey's injured hand twitched and he was reminded of the shattering glass did he pull away. He turned his head to the side, blonde locks falling to cover his face as he stared down at the floor, his hand going limp in Kaiba's. Eventually the brunette let him go, allowing the blonde time to just think. They stood there together for a few moments, in silence, taking in what had just happened. Joey lifted his fingers to brush over his swollen lips before looking up into Kaiba's eyes. He was no longer crying, but he looked like a mess. The blonde opened his mouth to speak but closed it quickly, deciding on what to say after another moments thought.

"It still hurts," He said softly, his voice barely audible under his breath, "I look at you and all I see is that jerk and the way you looked at him and the pain in my chest that is somethin' I didn't even know a human being _could_ feel."

"I need some time, to think, to-" Joey exhaled, feeling his shoulders tremble as he spoke. This was more difficult than he'd anticipated. He could sense the fear in Kaiba's eyes, the way his body had stiffened, preparing for words that would shatter his heart in an instant. Joey didn't want that, he couldn't hurt the brunette no matter how much pain he was feeling himself. Lifting his hands up to cup Kaiba's face softly, Joey looked up into the taller boy's eyes and felt tears begin to trickle down his cheeks once more.

"I believe what you said, I don't think you hurt me on purpose... I trust you but... I need time."

With that, Joey leant up on his tiptoes and pressed a tender but quick kiss on the brunette's lips before turning away to his right and heading down the last couple flights of stairs until he reached outside.

Warm evening air blasted the boy's face as he pushed open the fire exit door and walked out onto the street. It wasn't particularly busy and thanks to the lack of visibility, Joey was able to pull the collar of his jacket up to cover most of his blood splattered and red face. He paused and drunk in lungful's of air, his head still spinning from the kiss and how he'd just left Kaiba standing there. It was only when he heard an amused chuckle to his left did he open his eyes and narrow his gaze at a man standing by a brilliant white limo.

 **Kaiba:** Seto caught the blonde as he fell into him, wrapping his free arm around the blonde's waist and tucking the boy into the curves of his own body, fitting like puzzle pieces. It all felt right. The brunette continued to tower over the smaller teen, eyes still shut as he rolled his tongue over the boy's lips, begging for an entrance. As it was granted, he explored the blonde's mouth hungrily, rolling softly over Joey's tongue just before the blonde pulled away. Seto also pulled his hand away from the other boy's reluctantly, allowing the blonde's arm to fall back to his side. However, Seto kept a tight hold of the boy around the waist, looking down into his puffy, yet still gorgeous, amber eyes.

As the blonde began to speak again, Seto was still trying to catch his breath, continuously licking at his lips desperate to taste the boy again. His pupils were fully dilated, cerulean eyes burning with a fire as he listened to what Joey had to say.

"It's not like that..." he began to try and explain before being cut off again. As soon as he heard the words _'time to think'_ , the CEO knew exactly where this conversation was going as he himself had had it many times with previous ex-lovers _. 'I just need time'_ he used to lie to get them off his back _. 'Time to think'_. He felt his heart drop, the type of feeling you get when you've just heard that a family member has died or when you've been lied to. The fire in the brunette's eyes was now gone, cerulean eyes hazy and dull as he pursed his lips together, grip loosening around the boy's waist. "Let me explain. Joey, please. Please will you just come home with me?" Seto begged, his bottom lip quivering slightly. Of course, the CEO was never going to cry and especially in such a public way like Joey did, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt him. Before he knew it, the blonde's lips were pressed up against his again and Seto leant right into it, placing his own hands on top of Joey's which were on his own cheeks. And before he knew it, Joey Wheeler was gone, Seto still leaning into his kiss even though the boy was no longer there. To catch his fall, he threw an arm out, propping himself up in the same corner that Joey once was. Furious and devastated, the brunette flung a heavy fist into the concrete wall, crying out as he did so, his knuckles immediately bruised and bloody on impact.

Seto took a few moments to compose himself, face turned into the wall as he stared at the floor, still heavily breathing. For one of the first times in his life: he was confused. He actually had no idea what just happened. How did he go from detesting the mere sight of the boy to having him in his home, fixing his wrist, ignoring him, taking him to dinner to KISSING him and then losing him all over again? The brunette stood to his full height and then rolled one of his sleeves up again that had fallen down during his and Joey's kiss. He exhaled long and deep, his thoughts still up in the air as he dejectedly followed the same path as the blonde and exited out through the bottom of the building, a flush of cool, evening air hitting him and blowing his hair out of his face as he did so. He didn't even bother to look for Joey, he didn't see the point. Re-opening his eyes, the brunette was suddenly composed again, his face once more expressionless as he stepped out into the street, bringing out his pager to beep Charlie to come and get him.


	15. Silver Spoon Comeuppance

**Kaiba:** After being so publically embarrassed, Ryu and his friends had decided it was time to call it quits, the only real reason they had hung around in the first place was purely because of Seto Kaiba anyway. The icy-haired teen said good bye to his friends, waving them off as they all got into their own vehicles and left the restaurant. Silently, he brought a cigarette up to his lips, flicking the lighter until he felt the rush of nicotine filling his lungs. He too paged his drive to come and get him, a brilliant white limo pulling around the corner as he did so. Perfect timing. The blue eyed teen made his way over to the limo, stepping out into the street dividing him as his driver before he heard the sound of the fire exit flapping open, the doors making a huge clatter. Ryu jumped out of his skin, jumping back onto the pavement, his mind immediately assuming that a car was about to collide into him due to the noise. After gaining composure, he threw his head to the side directly at where the sound came from and then... there he was. Seto's little date and absolutely looking worse for wear. What on earth had Seto done to him? With jealousy spiking the hairs on the back of his neck, he took another puff of his cigarette, a cruel chuckle gurgling in his throat.

"Aw, look, it's Josh the puppy." he teased, words like flowing like liquor as he intentionally got the boy's name wrong. Childish but effective. "What on earth happened to you?" he smirked much like Seto, floating over to the blonde boy, caring not for his own personal safety at this moment. Completely invading the other boy's personal space, he reached out, gripping the boy roughly by the chin and turning his head, translucent crystal eyes shimmering in pleasure as he really took in how awful Joey looked. Suddenly, he pushed the blonde's chin out of his hands aggressively, his chuckle developing into a laugh. "Did you really think that Seto Kaiba cared about you? Oh how magical of him to bring you out to a place like this - a place you clearly don't belong." Ryu smirked, inhaling his cigarette once more, blowing the smoke out in Joey's face. "How absolutely wonderful of him. And then what, Joey? You were going to ride away with him on a carriage into the sunset holding hands and kissing?" He paused to laugh again before his face fell deadly seriously, eyes narrowing into tight slits. "Listen. Men like Seto Kaiba don't fool around with boys like you. Men like Seto Kaiba are with men like me, men with power and money, not boys with a tragic teen story and bad dress sense. Can't you see that, dog?" his words were venomous, intentional and cruel, much like the boy himself.

 **Joey:** The blonde exhaled heavily. He felt tired, like there was a huge weight resting on his shoulders that he couldn't seem to shake or like some invisible force had its hands wrapped around his wrists and were dragging him further and further to the ground. He was so tired he couldn't even gather enough energy to feel pain. He just felt empty, a shell of the person he used to be.

Glancing at the man who was now approaching him, he looked like he was gliding or slithering like a snake, not actually walking, Joey rolled back his shoulders and stood to attention- like Kaiba did, commanding the space with posture. He knew this was going to be messy and as the emotions from earlier started to wash away, his empty shell was now replaced with someone you did not want to mess with. A dark, disturbed and utterly pissed off version of Joey Wheeler was now present.

The blonde shoved his hands into his pockets, his bloodied palm ringing in pain from stretching at the probably infected and tight skin. He took a step back away from Ryu, defences up, before he felt the cruel looking man grab at his chin with sharp, cold hands. For a moment, Joey thought he was going to be kissed and the thought literally churned his stomach and made him feel nauseous. The blonde received the spiteful blows with an unusual calm, pulling away roughly from the man's hands as he could no longer stand to be touched by someone as vile as this human being. As the blows continued, Joey stood motionless. He had lowered his head, teeth grinding together as he clenched his jaw, hands balled up into fists that practically shook from a growing rage inside of him.

Suddenly, without warning, Joey darted forward, grabbing at the $500 Armani suit with his dirtied, bloody hands. Shoving the slender man roughly into the side of the limo, Joey lifted his head so his fiery amber eyes looked into the transparent white ones threateningly. A grin spread over the blonde's face as he clocked the trembling of the CEO and the look of horror on his face as he realised not even his driver had bothered to come out of the car to save him.

"Don't you know boys with tragic back stories are the ones that know how to fight? That know how to feel? That know how to beat up a jumped up asshole with a silver spoon shoved up his ass?" Joey spat before narrowing his eyes at the man, anger the prevailing emotion of the moment, "Someone like you Ryu, will never find happiness. Sure, you have your fancy suits and your money and people you think are friends, but what you really want... you'll never get. An' sure, Kaiba might not want a mutt like me, but at least I can say that one of the world's most richest and powerful CEO's just made out of with me in the stairwell of Domino City's best Italian restaurant." Joey said with a smirk, watching the jealousy consume the man in front of him. Stepping away, the blonde let go of Ryu and turned his back to leave before pausing.

"Oh yeah, this is how us lower-class people like to say goodbye to rich snobs like you," Spinning on his heel, Joey clenched his fist and brought it back behind his head before connecting his knuckles to Ryu's face. The sound of the punch was sickening but clean and Joey found the burn and throbbing of his bones exhilarating. Shoving his, once again, bleeding hand back into his pocket, the blonde turned left down the street, leaving the CEO on the floor and disappeared into the crowds of people, making his way back home.

 **Kaiba:** Seto too was exhausted, his shoulders aching from holding the other boy so tightly and his legs still wobbling. It was all just too much. With his mind still cloudy, he brought the pager out of his back pocket once more and dialled Charlie's number, forgetting that he had already done so just moments ago. Beginning to walk with the same purpose and confidence as ever, to anyone looking in on the situation from the outside would never have dreamt that only moments ago Seto and Joey were making out down the fire exit and even more so: that Seto had practically been rejected and that was something that the CEO was NOT accustomed to. Without even realising it, he had turned his back on the direction that Joey and Ryu were currently in and made his way to the bay where Charlie said he would be waiting.

The white haired boy's smirk kept growing as he watched Joey placed his hands in his pockets as he spoke, pulling away violently from his touch. It was exactly what he wanted. Sniggering, he took enough puff of his cigarette, ready to turn on his heel and walk away when suddenly, he began choking on the smoke, rough hands around the front of his suit as his cigarette dropped to the floor and burned out. Still coughing, crystal eyes turned to fear as Joey brought his face closer to his, that twisted grin adorning his face. In a cry for help, he turned his head to the left towards where his driver was sat. The woman stared back at him through her rear mirror, wide eyed and just as terrified - there was no chance she was going to get involved in this. It was his own damn fault, anyway. As soon as the white haired boy heard the word 'fight', his eyes grew even larger, head shaking in detest. Sure, he was foul mouthed and cruel with his words but when it came to physical altercations, he stood absolutely no chance. In fact, it was always Seto's job to intervene whenever the blue eyed boy had blabbed his mouth too much. What Joey said next truly shook the boy. Clinging desperately onto the side of his limo, his grip tightened, the back of his eyes stinging with the sharp hint of new tears. With his mouth slightly open, his bottle lip began to tremble, it soon becoming glaringly obvious that to Ryu, Seto was still more than a "business partner" in his mind. And to be interested in someone like Joey Wheeler?! The idea boiled his blood, his whole face turning red in anger.

As soon as Joey stepped away, Ryu tried to compose himself, frowning down at the scuff marks on the front of his suit.

"That's right, dog, walk away!" he cried, eyes now full with tears of fury as he stared at the back of Joey's head. "Keep walki-!" and before he knew it, he felt one side of his face caving in, his bones cracking with an unholy sound. For a few moments he just stood there, eyes wide, tears freely rolling down his cheek. It was like he didn't even know what had happened, despite the agonising pain in the side of his face. He tried to fall backwards into his limo but missed, placing his hand out behind him as he fell to the floor straight onto his ass. All he could do was watch Joey walk away as he slowly brought a hand up to his cheek, the whole area around his eye socket swelling immediately.

Hearing the commotion, Seto stopped, spinning around on his heel just in time to catch Joey flinging his fist into Ryu's face. He couldn't help the loud "HAH" that crept of his throat and forced its way out. If Joey hadn't of done it, Seto absolutely would have. Cerulean eyes locked on the blonde boy as he just walked away, hands in pockets, not being able to help but heart fluttering slightly. If anything, the blonde's act of aggression simply made Seto feel more attracted to him. As Joey disappeared into a crowd of people, Seto also placed his hands in his pockets and made his way over to Ryu who was still laying on the floor.

"Seto...?" the white haired boy whimpered, his face an absolute calamity. Like a small child, he reached out with his hand, asking for the brunette to help pick him up. For a moment, the CEO just stood there, staring down at Ryu and his messy face. Slowly, he bent down on one knee, also reaching his hand out to grab at his ex-lover's. With what facial movement the boy could muster, he tried to smile, crystal eyes meeting those of deep cerulean. Immediately, he regretted taking the brunette's hand. With all the force he had left in his body, Seto flung the boy all the way down onto the floor so he was laying by the side of his limo. Ryu laid there completely still, gaze blurring through all the pain he was in. Still kneeling, the brunette came up by his side, grabbing his collar in his large hands and pulling his face off the ground so it was nearly touching his own.

"You're lucky it wasn't me, _darling_ ," he spat, once more shoving the boy to the floor before standing to full height. As he did so, he heard the familiar beep. He glanced over his shoulder to see his own limo practically colliding with the front of Ryu's.

"Oh, fuck off, Charlotte!" Charlie barked, sticking his head out of his window and flipping the female driver off. Quite obviously, there was some tension between the two CEO's drivers. She screamed something incoherent back through her closed window, causing Charlie to flip her off AGAIN before looking over at Seto. His eyes widened slightly as he looked his employer up and down. "Wow, rough night? Where's blondie?"

"Just take me home, Charlie. Please." and with that, the brunette slipped in through the car door, shutting it gently behind him. The limo reversed and took off in the direction of his mansion.


End file.
